Aliens: Lost City
by lynx-y3k
Summary: Set after the events of S.Perrys 'Aliens' novels... Once again the world of man has fallen to the monsters of space.. And those left down on Earth must fight to survive...
1. Prologue

Prologue - set after the events of S. Perrys 'Aliens' novels

**GHOSTS FROM NIGHTMARES...**

Closer to the hives entrance, the same familiar smell from his nightmares and those of the past. He made each step cautiously, remembering those years ago. Watching on as AJ and the remaining marines were slowly walking into the hive that had taken over the Undercity.

Something was wrong, it was too quiet and the Queen had not called upon her guards to defend the hive.

He looked on into the hive watching every movement, listening to each and every sound, everyone apart from him seemed uneasy but felt the intense rush of blood through their bodies, not expecting to be anywhere close to a hive, especially when they were so close to safety only moments earlier. They must be insane to be risking their lives, and Jacques could only be thankful for the sacrifice, he was not going to lose Sam, especially after all they had been through.

"Jacques?" A rough voice came from behind him.

"Sanders, what the hell are you doing here?" he said back to the injured fool, brave but still a damned fool.

But before the two could be reacquainted they both heard shrieks in the darkness of the hive. The sound of claws scraping already torn metal, they were coming, the monsters, the aliens were coming and they knew that there would be a problem getting into the nest chamber. They knew that they would soon be baby food. The two once colonial marines turned with their carbines raised, fingers on the triggers, waiting.

Jacques called over to the marines, telling them to be ready for the Xeno's, but Guy was feeling weak, he could feel the blood seep from his wounds. He was barely able to raise his carbine, but like Jacques, there was someone he did not want to lose. Looking at each other they headed into the group and got into formation to fight the bugs, but as the first shadow appeared from the darkness something was wrong, this was no horde of aliens, this was just one..


	2. Chapter One

**Aliens: Lost City.  
  
**Chapter One.  
  
Dirt stuck to the bloodied wound, the cold ground was black, solid, and anything that would hit it would not be getting up that quickly. Jacques reached down, trying to keep his carbine aimed forward, but the strap would slide of his shoulder as he bent down to pick up the fallen Sam. She had hit the floor pretty hard, tripped over her own feet, Jacques thinking that it was funny, but at the time, in their predicament, they had no time to shake of her hard fall.  
  
What had felt like long trailing moments for Sam as she had fallen, had only been a split second for Jacques, not having time to think, only reach and grab. They were now both on their feet running south on 42nd Street, barely being able to see down the street, as a thick fog made them blind to such a distance. With only a few footsteps of vision ahead of them they would hope that they would not run into any trouble. Baby food was not something they wished to become, they had lived too long for it to just end this way.  
  
Sixteen blocks ahead of Jacques and Sam, working frantically to activate the _Cerebus_ was Chan. She had flown ships for half of her life, but when it came to unlocking a flightdeck ignition prgram, she was lost. Unwomanly, sweat dripped from her forehead, he dirty black hair falling in her face, momentarily blinding her as she punched in codes and asking Mother for help. As always the deep womans computerised synthesized voice would echo annoyingly in Chans ears, offering no help and reminding her of the two hour countdown.  
  
Jacques headed in the direction of the _Cerebus_ praying that it would appear in their vision sometime soon, the echoing screams were growing louder behind them, scraping claws on the metallic undercity buildings and sewer pipes below them. Sam glanced over at Jacques who only had his eyes in the direction of the ship, but he did move his head into her direction to see her fearful frown. Knowing that they would probably not make it to the ship alive, but they would keep on going forward. Some good news being the fog was slowly beginning to fade and rise to the higher floors of the uppercity skyline.  
  
Out of the ground they came, from the once tunnels heading towards the underground city. Years ago it was a great city hidden from the dangerous ultra-violet rays of the sun, but after the UV-Protector was activated, all from below came back to the world above. Those who could not afford to return would stay, soon they astablished the underground as a new city separate to that of the one above. Sadly the city was turned into a dark world of poverty and crime, and soon it was blocked off. And the ones who once lived below were soon forgotten.  
  
It was not the underground city that was on Jacques' mind, it was the monsters that ripped themselves out of the darkness, like shadows they sprang, some still stained with blood from their last grusome meal. The underground still had human inhabitants, alot were Spears who believed that the Aliens were their new saviours. The Queen of each of the many Hives were intelligent, smarter than the smartest man, and they kept the Spears so they could keep breeding. The Spears psychotically oblivious to the monsters evil survival.  
  
"Fuck!" The young womans voice echoed into Jacques' head. The sound of the monsters were now second to Sam. "They are all around us Declan, what the hell do we do now?"  
  
His eyes squinted at Sam. Knowing well that they had been in similar situations, she had to lose her cool now, after only a slight tumble and she is suddenly shit scared. But the more he thought about it, the more he realised that he was the one that was scared. He did not doubt for one second that Sam had not already pissed her pants, but right now, all he could think about was holding it in. They had gotten out of worse.  
  
For a slight second Sam actually thought that she would get a response. Long seconds passed and still no answers, and with a sigh she just looked at the beasts climbing, tearing their way from the dirt, like ants from a nest they came, in their hundreds, and like prey the two of them found themselves once again in fear of their lives, surrounded by monsters, with nowhere to run.  
  
"Okay kid." A slight husky cough-like whisper came from Jacques. "When I say run, I mean run, don't you dare look back!" And with those words, as if the aliens knew that he was planning something, they lunged forward, so fast towards them, only a few hundred yards away, they came.  
  
It was amazing Sam thought, Jacques showed no fear, yet she knew that the merc was probably full of shit, and not in the attitude way. He raised his carbine, a weapon he had come to love in this war against the aliens, and the familiar sound of its rounds would deafen anyone within several steps away would be firing at the creatures, ripping through them. And still they came, the overwhelming number of them, yet Jacques did not lower his weapon, he made sure that he would take down as many of these demons as possible.  
  
"Run, towards the break in the line. Now! Run!" And with that Sam watched as Jacques headed away from her. She heard what Jacques had said, but she had no idea what the break in line was. She had been around Colonial Marines and Mercs for the best part of her life, forever running from the aliens in many battles and escapes. And as she watched Jacques disappear from the corner of her eye she still could not see the break in the line. She thought to herself 'What fucking line?'  
  
**. . .  
  
**It was dark every day in the deeps of what was once called _'New Hope City'_, but now, those who lived down in the shadows, forever hidden from the lights of the sun, it was no longer a place they could live for hope in, it was now barely a city. And still it was their home.  
  
Even with the monsters running around looking for them each day and night, as long as they controlled the hidden pipes then they would be fine, and living on the opposite side of the monsters sector sometimes made it harder for them to be found. It seemed to be a good idea to hide so close to them, not as obvious, stupid maybe, crazy definately. But fear from the aliens would cause them to stay away from any pipes, and they all decided to remain close to the sanctuary chamber, far from any known nests.  
  
At last count there was now only twelve of them, the oldest being Francis, always taking charge. He was a short stubby man, only in his late thirties, and always clean shaven, even if it meant using an old razor, a few cuts on his scarred face did not bother him, he himself had seen worse. He would each day call a meeting to discuss the usual boring routine, and anyone who would not listen, because Francis had control, he could send them to the cell. No one would dare wish to argue with him, he was always right, even if the others thought otherwise.  
  
The cell itself was really just an old janitors closet, but it was a prison due to the fact that its mirror was one way and usually the ones on the other side were the monsters, they would usually be cloaked in red or black, always with their faces hidden. And for anyone within the cell, they would see that sometimes the monsters would have caught one of the innocents. Anyone who had to stay in the cell, would have to live with the nightmare of just watching the evil.  
  
Five of the twelve were only young. The youngest being only seven, her name was Lyssa, she was at times sweet. Sadly with her nightmares she must be kept highly sedated, and this saddens her brother Stephen, who is the oldest of the 'so-called' kids at nineteen. The other three are in their early teens, always playing, always getting in trouble. They are all brothers and they stay close to Kathy, their older sister.  
  
Because of their ages they have to listen to whom they called the elders, which was really only Francis because he was the one that was always in control, secretly they would wish that Guy was the one in charge. Guy himself was in his late twenties, and always questioned Francis, even the little trivial things, and that was why he spent most of his time in the cell. Eventhough he seemed to be alot tougher than Francis, it was Francis that held the gun.  
  
Guy looked like your typical male for his age, well, for those living in the Dark City. Six foot tall, well built with a rough complextion and short dirty blond hair that would look messy yet was always spiked. The wonder of Vaz, the shit looked disgusting almost like alien dribble. That comment always brought laughter to the youngest of the group, and Guy would always be smiling at the point that was so commonly made. He did not care, as long as it worked, and vaz, it would keep the longest hair sticking right up to the ceiling.  
  
After overhearing some of the elders talking, soon it was learnt that Guy was once a marine, one of those galactic colonial marines, always at war with someone or something. Stphen was once overheard that he was stranded on a planet with his team, the planet was a complete jungle planet, class C. Something called '_Jevan_' or as Francis called it _'LV-297'_, always by the codebook.  
  
"From what the corporation files state, Corporal Guy Sanders, was the only survivor." Francis was talking to Demetri, his second in command, a weasle of a man, slick back strand of hair, thin and tall. "A goddamn team of almost thirty and he was the only one to survive. You remember Jevan don't you? Class C planetoid, jungle planet."  
  
Stephen snuck into an old overhead pipe to listen secretly to most of the meetings Francis would have with Dem. He had heard some crazy stories, alot about a group of civilians who had fought with the aliens on their home planet. Probably just stupid reports, nothing could fight and survive against the aliens, especially on their home planet. Earth did not stand a chance, so much death. The reports had to be false, they could not be true, it was almost a unbelievable dream, someone who can fight against them, still some hope.  
  
He wished everyday that he could fight against him, but Kathy and Guy would always tell him that he was too young. The nerve, watching his family mutilated by Spears and used as baby growth chambers. He would kill everyone one of those sick fucks. But right now he just listened to what Francis was telling Dem about Guy.  
  
"Some sort of alien was supposedly killing his team, one by one..." Francis could never finish a sentence without Demetri cutting in.  
  
"How many of those xenomorphs were there?" And Francis looked at Demetri and in a disbelief smile.  
  
"Just one, and it was a humanoid alien. From what the report tells me, Guy was injured in the second attack and left for dead, hidden under dirt and debris. It seems that the alien collected their skulls for some weird ritualistic collection. Guy somehow escaped before the alien could activate its own self-destruct. It must had been injured and sacrificed its own life to kill anyone that was going to collect it as a speciman or a trophy. Corporal Guy Sanders was found in hypersleep forty-six years later."  
  
Francis reached for a glass, raised it to his lips and let the warm liquid pour down his throat. After a deep breathe he continued to look through the files marked 'Top Secret'. He could not look more amazed at what he was reading. He placed one of the files on the desk and opened his top draw, he pushed it in.  
  
"What is that sir?" Demetri looked at Francis placing the files on his desk. Francis took out his keys from his back left pocket, bits of lint and torn paper fell onto the floor as he removed the keys. He searched and found the small round key he was looking for. Locking the drawer he quickly put his keys back into his back pocket and looked at Demetri.  
  
"Top secret Demetri, top secret." And that was that, he ordered Demetri to ready dinner, who had already stood up and began to leave the room quickly. Francis was still unaware of his hidden guest, Stephen, watching, barely able to hear what was being said. All he could make out was most of the alien on Jevan, something about green glowing blood and that Guy was the only survivor. Stephen was more interested in the top secret file that Francis locked in his desk, somehow, he had to get to that file, it had to be important and the others had to know what was in it.  
  
. . .


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two.

It seemed like all was against them, they had nothing but badluck eversince they found out that Earth was taken. It took only one alien to begin the apocalypse on the humans planet, a matter of months and it was over, starting with only one or two cities, then after only one year, the world was taken. The great cities were taken, New York City to Melbourne, London and Frankfurt.

Emma Chan was not there at the fall of humanity, she was waking up from cyro-sleep, nightmares ruled over her mind. Sorrowed memories of Demi and Alexis, even Williams fell into her thoughts from time to time. Everything she had been through would forever scar her soul, _LV-154_ was in the past, one of the first human encounter all those years ago. She fought for her own life and the lives of others, the aliens were her life, and right now, they were surrounding her.

She heard the horrifying screams of the ones she had spent her rest with, cries in the distance somewhere in the corridors of the ship she seemed to be in. Her throat hurt from a longlasting dryness, her muscles ached from a lifetime in slumber, she remembered the last time she felt like this, when she she awoke from her cyro-sleep from escaping the _Santas Rio_. How long had she been out? She wished not to know at this point, the screams were coming closer to her small grey coloured room.

A banging on her door brought a fear that she had not felt in many years, she gripped hold of her chest feeling an agonising pain, something was wrong. The banging became a muffled thumping on hard cold steal, the sounds bouncing around her room, deafening her, still the screams. Chan reached for the door switch, still holding her chest, the pain was almost too much, she prayed for peace, but God did not seem to ever answer her prayers.

Before she pressed the switch thick red liquid splattered onto the view-window, some kind of chucky bits of flesh dripped down onto the floor, and the screaming had stopped. Sadly the pain grew worse, unable to stand Chan fell to her knees, then onto her back, she was now unable to breathe, and the screams began once more, but not from outside.

It was Chan that was screaming, blood suddenly spraying from a deep gash in her chest, coming from the inside, the pulsating waves of warm blood now covered the cold floor that she was lying upon. She jerked around trying to fight her body from throwing itself about, but she could only feel the pain and lie there as her body spasmed. Blood now poured from her chest, mouth, nose and almost like a rainfall as she cried thinned blood.

As she squirmed for the last time, her last heartbeat, her last thought of horror flooded into her mind. It was over as her chest ripped open, the small yet long snakelike creature throwing itself about, free from its egg. Thick gel, warm with the corpses blood dripped from the creatures jaws, the shining teeth snapped as it slowly dragged itself from the dead Chan.

Looking at her, moving close to the motionless face, only one tear fell over her cheek of the wide eyed woman, its mouth opened and its second sharp fanged mouth almost like a tongue licked Chan, then it opened its mouth and looked deeply into Chans eyes.

"Mother!"

Oh god, it was only a dream. Her heart pounded in her chest, the visions of a life that could be a reality. How long had she been in the daze? Chan looked over at the Digital Hover Camera, hoping that Jacques and Sam were closer, but they were no longer in view, only the aliens could be seen, and they covered the city street. She flicked for DHC manual movement, at a top zoom range she scanned for human life, but nothing on the street ahead, Jacquess com was still activated showing a pulse, so he had to still be alive.

Looking closely towards the centre of the alien group she could see a thin cloud of yellow smoke. She zoomed in even closer and flicked on the thermal scanner. The aliens when up and running would have no heat signatures, but if an alien had been harmed, the acidic blood would show a heat pattern on the scanner, which it was now. Looking at the pattern of the aliens she noticed that a small gap in their line was breached, she smiled. 'Jacques, you lucky fuck." There were no signs of human blood, they must have gotten away.

But as she sighed a breathe of relief, she noticed that the aliens were headed into her direction, coming towards the _Cerebus_.

Did she ever have a break, its as if they knew that she was there. Chan looked at the DHC and could clearly see the aliens looking at it, looking towards the ship, it was amazing really, the ship should not be in view, in the dense fog and so far away, it was amazing, the creatures instincts were far superior of any earth inhabitant. Thinking about it, no wonder these monsters were hard to destroy, they just know where to go, and it was because of the Queens.

The drones themselves were lacking intelligence, but as long as there was a queen in the area, they could do anything, she guided them, put her mind into every single individual alien drone. And right now, the queen guided the aliens to Chan, a funny feeling Chan had in the gut of her stomach, the queen knew she was there.

At an incredible speed the monsters got closer to the _Cerebus_ as if there was a light guiding them, but one little device that the aliens did not know of was the new ship defences that were made specifically for such an alien encounter. With a flick of a small red switch and it was... Nothing was happening, the shield was not working.

Goddamn electrician, the last thing Chan demanded was the protective shield for the ship and they had not put it in, what was wrong with these people, do they just thrive on causing countless deaths. She was sure that the fucker was smirking as the blast doors closed, now she knew why. Human nature can show so much hatred, even at a time like this.

"Mother, activate 'Inferno Field'.. Run through route B, sector 17-Z-a14." Chan hurried the commands, hoping that something would turn on, a light would flicker, something that would help, but there was only one reply that Chan was expecting from Mother.

"Inferno Field Activated." And just when you think your screwed something like this happens, it worked, thank god, someone was watching over her for once, and just in time, looking at the DHC she noticed that the aliens had arrived, and with a smirk she watched on as they poured into the shield generator.

. . .

Guy sat at a small three seater table in the mess hall, it was normally quiet around this time. He would have time to think about his tasks for the following day, or the same old things he did everyday. How did he get to where he was now, stuck in a small series of chambers hiding from humans who act like monsters and from aliens that act like, well, act like, coming to think about it, what did aliens act like? What would an alien think they acted like?

Time passed by so slowly these days, with the buzzing of the Air-Ventilation-System, and the flickering lights, dull as always. If it was upto him, he would march straight into the Spears' main hall and with one bullet, end all this, if the main leader was down the rest would follow the one that would take command. Unfortunately he was stuck in the hidden pipes just a few hundred yards from the monsters, fucking psychotics, who would believe the aliens to be the new savior? Not anyone he knew, well, thought he knew up until a few years back. Andy, poor kid.

Watching them walk around believing they were so important. The group did not really know why the monsters were named Spears', sounded like a stupid name to call humans that betrayed their own race. They were worse than the aliens, at least the aliens had purpose, but these monsters, they lived believing that they would be saved by the new lord. Who sadly had to be an alien, who would of thought? An alien, a big goo dripping, razor-toothed savior, last laugh for the one once called Jesus.

That name was lost year ago, when prayers were no longer a whisper or even a thought. God did not play a part in human existance anymore.

Sitting once more in the cell, Guy looked out at the cloaked men and women walking around, always wearing red and blue, hands together, forever in prayer, but something was different this day, Guy was looking upon a group of them, more than twenty. He looked at them all, standing in small rows of 5, looking directly at Guy, it was almost scary, but he knew that they could not see him.

A tall man in a black cloak walked in front of the mirror, looking out towards the others, his hands by his side, he turned his head away from them and looked at a small camera, he began to talk. Guy wished that he could hear what was being said, but soon he got a clue when a holographic image of an alien appeared on the screen. He then watched as the Spears' fell to their knees, he was almost able to hear the chanting.

They all lifted their heads and looked into the direction that Black was looking. Guy watched as three more cloaked figures walked into view, two in red, the other in white, standing in front of the camera, two of them walked away leaving White next to Black.

Black began to speak again to the camera, and slowly after a few minutes he reached over to White, lifting his cloak of him. Guy could only watch in horror as he recognized the young boy who had been gagged and beaten, Andy Evans, the kid was only fifthteen, and bruises covered his face. Black looked at him and back to the camera, and after a few more minutes Black reached behind him, and took out a long very sharp looking knife.

He was sat in the mess hall remembering the past, trying to not look back further, but even close to the present were nightmares. He sometimes wondered if he should of died with his team back on Jevan, but the more he thought about it, the more he would think that it was not his time, and still, even years after Jevan, it still was not his time. Thinking about poor Andy Evans made his quest for revenge greater, he had a score to settle and until he took out every one of those sick fucks, he would be ready, preparing.

His senses were sharp nowadays, he could smell someone coming, Kathy. The door opened and she walked in, he turned his head slowly not trying to seem that he was looking specifically at her, it had been a long time since he had been with a woman, years. Kathy was definately something to look at, not so close to six foot, but a nice womanly height, petite yet tough body, she had been through alot. And one thing he loved about Kathy was that she would always have soft, clean hair, damn she smelt good.

She walked over and sat down beside Guy, smiling, she was a woman, she knew that he was looking at her body, especially her firm breasts, all men could not resist. She reached for his drink and sipped it, 'Jack on the rocks' and this shit was real, must of been alot of credits to get the real stuff, not that chemical crap.

"Hey there Guy, what is a good-looking marine like you doing all by yourself in the mess hall, it kinda smells bad in here." He looked at her and smiled, she returned his smile and lightly punched his shoulder.

"Well, it did smell bad until you came in here Kat." He gave her a little wink and began to stand up. She grabbed his shoulders and forced him back into his seat, no longer smiling at him, she just stared at him, almost emotionless. All he did was look back as he let her have her way, he was not sure where this was headed, but right now, he would play along with. "Come on little girl, I have a perimeter to walk." But there was no reply, she just straddled him and was now sitting on his lap.

"I have not been with a man in so many years Guy, and I really want you, I have for a long time. I have been trying to get you alone but you are always finding things to do." She fluttered her eyelids and smiled, she moved in to kiss him and he let her, their lips met and he could not believe how soft her lips were. Then again, she could not believe how gentle his kiss was, and his hands caressed her body, for that one moment in time, they were no longer in hell.

Unaware the two were being watched, and heavy breathing indicated that this person was going to keep watching. A light flickered showing his face, Demetri, his sleazy grin as he watched the two consenting adults take advantage of each other. If it was not for the secret soundproof chamber he sat in, they would hear him and see him, his eyes stared as he watched the two undress.

He reached down still looking at them both and took hold of an open file, with a quick glance he saw pictures of both Guy and Kathy, his grin became a grimace.

"She is mine you fucker, not yours!"


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three.

Explosive rounds from the carbine tore deeply into the aliens directly in front of Jacques' line of fire, their bodies exploding to the special impact explosive rounds that he had modified only three days earlier. He could smell the rancid acidic blood spraying over the once concrete road, now the bloodied aliens fell onto rubbled stone and grit. Now this is what Jacques considered road-rage.

His carbine did not stop firing as he ran into the aliens break in line, he was not going to fail something he had done a million times in active combat. Alien blood sprayed all over the place as he ran through without a care, droplets fell onto his face and chest, and even the agonizing feeling of his own burning flesh did not stop his will to live. The more he thought about it, it was no longer a will to live, it was a will to kill. And the dozen aliens he had already put down were just the beginning.

Unable to look back he had hoped that Sam was following, he just followed his instincts and he trusted her to be able to follow. He could hear the aliens screeches as he blew them up, now his tally was at twenty-nine and counting, he would hope that they would keep falling. He carried on forwards and finally made it to the abandoned building he had seen in the corner of his eye just a minute before.

As he made it into the doorway he now had time to look behind and see Sam coming through the pile of dead aliens to the once restaurant. From the sign Jacques read it to be 'Taco Bell Cuisine', how the mightiest had fallen he thought to himself. But as he looked for Sam, he could not see her, only the now wall of aliens coming towards him. Even though they had no eyes or a couple of facial expressions, he could clearly see that they were pissed off.

She turned to see that Jacques was running at the aliens, his carbine firing in short bursts, watching as the aliens blew up almost the split second they were hit. She could see the yellow pixel blood spray all over the place, some even hitting Jacques as he ran through, but he did not stop. After spending most of her life with this man, she had admired him, he was strong willed and to put it nicely, one crazy mother fucker.

Her legs began to carry her into the direction that Jacques was headed, but the aliens moved faster and the path Jacques had made was now covered. Reaching behind herself, strapped to her back, she grabbed hold of a weapon she found in an old building a week ago. It was not too heavy but she needed two hands to carry it. Jacques told her that it was called a '_Shotgun_' some kind of twentieth century weapon.

Without any concern of being killed by the monsters in front of her she just ran, without a care, with the shotgun pumped and ready. The aliens weren't even looking at her, their attention was with Jacques who had blown a group of them to acid chunks, and it was too late for them as they turned an hissed, the shotgun was already firing at them. Sam held on tight as each time she pressed the trigger she got thrown back a few steps, yet she was satisfied by the wave of ammo taking down more than a few aliens at once, she loved this gun.

The classic gun caused great harm to the aliens that were in its way. Acidic blood spurted all over the rubbled ground, yellow colored smoke now covered the small area in which she stood, the aliens that were in-between her and Jacques were now falling and Sam could see a path through towards the desolate building, she began to run again into Jacques' direction.

A short distance was between the two of them and with the aliens it would seem miles away when only it was meters. Each time she would pump the shotgun the aliens would move out of her way, they knew that she would take them down and even though they would die for their queen and nest without a care, right now, the queen and their nest was not in trouble. They let her past, until they had a path to attack, and as Sam was only feet away from Jacques, one alien got in her way.

Without hesitation she lifted her weapon to the alien and pulled the trigger, she knew that she was running out of bullets, and this had to count, but the monster was too close and when the bullet ripped into its flesh, its blood sprayed towards Sam. She was quick but not too quick as she jumped out of its way, but a few drops of acidic blood found its way to Sams left thigh and with the melting flesh that was her leg, she fell to the ground.

. . .

Chan did not have a clue where Jacques had disappeared to, but she had a feeling that he and Sam were safe. Right now she had her own problems, she had to deactivate the engine override before the ship hits its pre-launch countdown, and she had no idea how to switch it off. _Mother _as always was really no help, answering questions with almost riddle-like answers. It would be nice to to here the damn ship say yes or no, or even give simple basic instructions, sadly the A.I was not programmed for basic.

Watching the monitors hoping for some sign of Jacques was stuck on her mind, yet she thought to herself that there would be no point talking to him if the ship was gone, and there was no way that the ship could be turned around once it hit its orbital destination. Looking over to the countdown, her heartbeat began to tear a hole in her chest '_00:59:26_', that could not be how long they had left, and with the screeching aliens burning up outside on the Inferno Field, her head was spinning.

"Jacques, where the hell are you?"

. . .

Hell was the place, uptown Manhattan. It was once a thriving city, high-rise buildings covering the skyline, the rich and wealthy would spend many an hour shopping, buying pointless articles of clothing or perfumes from the scent shops. A very expensive place to live also the main alien hive location. Situated underneath Manhattan was the once _New Hope City _but when the aliens came, it became the new _Hell_ on Earth, really one of many around the globe.

And stuck in the middle of Hell were two poor souls, once again running for their lives, one limping crying out in pain with a deep burnt-in hole, caused by thick acid. Her tears almost sprayed from her eyes just like the aliens blood that fell upon her thigh. The strength in her heart kept her from falling, as did the strong arms of the man holding her up, once again he saved her from the monsters.

When she fell outside the building, she thought she was dead, with aliens surrounding her, it had to be over. It was Jacques that came to her aid, his carbine once more destroying the aliens, he took her in his arms and ran, turning and taking down more of their demons, without any complaint he took her to almost safety, enough for her to take a breathe and get onto her own two feet. But the pain now delved deeply into her body.

Up four flights of stairs, around many corners and another seven levels up, her leg was almost unbearable, if it wasn't for the insulin that Jacques had given her, she would be on the floor at the bottom of the building with aliens all over her. She thought about that for a little while, wondering what the aliens would do to her. After everything they had done to their race, would the aliens simple kill them, or would they take them to the Hive so one of the queens could get them impregnated with alien babies. Thinking about it, probably the later.

"Personally girl, I would rather take my carbine and put one of the explosive rounds to my head." Who was talking? Was this her head calling out. "Now shut up with your negativity and run, the insulin should give you a few more minutes, don't you dare wimp out on me now." Phew, it was Jacques' rough voice that echoed around her head. Did she say that out loud? She did not know, the pain and the insulin in her body was making it hard for her to get a grip on reality. Damn, Jacques was right, a bullet did sound better than monster chow.

They had made it to the top of the building, standing now in a small corridor, the air smelt stale, old. Jacques knew what that smell was, he did not want to be here, death was all around them, but right now, they had nowhere else to go. The heavy sound of metal steps clanking from the direction they had just come from meant only one thing, they were coming and they were close.

Grabbing hold of Sam, Jacques lifted her onto his shoulders, the aliens sounded different which meant they were not the usual clone warriors, they had to be the dog-aliens, specifically breed from canines to hunt. Jacques knew that ahead of them was something he did not want to see, and something that would bring Sams nightmares back, he had no choice as he ran into the room straight ahead of them.

The room was only small, with a package elevator slider door and a large metal door, that looked like it headed into a large freezer of some type. Sam had no idea where Jacques was taking her, but as he jumped into the big freezer slamming the door as they entered, she suddenly saw the horror of where they had gone.

"How is your leg?" The heavy sound of thumping deafened the two as they sat in the freezer. Sam could barely hear what Jacques had asked, but with his pointing to her thigh she understood clearly. Her face answered his question, and yet she still had some strength and hid a lot of the pain, she was strong, he had to admit that.

"I have a hole the size of an apple in my thigh Declan, I have been expecting something like this since I first ran into these fuckers. Acid for blood, what fucked up God would do that to the universe?!" She had some sense of humor left in her, but anyone could see her pain, and there was not a damn thing Jacques could do to take it away. He glanced at his watch '_00:59:26_'.

What had seemed like hours passing had only been minutes, the thumping had stopped but the aliens had to be outside waiting. Sam hated sitting in the not so cold freezer, it had been left open for so long the fuse had probably blown, and with that she was glad, it would have been a frozen nightmare to be in there, even for a few minutes.

It was the stained blood and torn body-parts that made her stomach curl, she knew why Jacques had carried her in, she would rather go through another round with the aliens than have to be surrounded by all the very dead bodies, but she did not complain, her thigh hurt too much for that, she was just glad to be alive. Luckily some of the torn flesh still had clothe on it, so Jacques bandaged up the wound, she flinched as he tighten it around her thigh.

"What is it with dead bodies and you Declan. Can't we go just five minutes?" She smirked and gave a faint giggle. Jacques just looked at her for a minute, before chuckling back, it had been awhile since they could last enjoy a moments peace. "Declan, what are we going to do?"

A moments silence had passed before Jacques looked up at her, he was still catching his breathe, it had been a long hour, running, shooting, running, and after sharing a little joke he became serious again, his smile became a slight frown, he truly was not sure. He knew that Chan would be unable to deactivate the _Cerebus_. And time was against them once more.

"Hey kid, do not threat, I have a plan." He smiled but Sam could see that he was at a loss, there was no way of reaching Chan on coms and the timer was running out. She returned the smile and her head lowered. Was this really the end? "Samantha, can you walk?"

"I can try, I don't see a problem. Why?" Jacques stood up, reloaded his carbine and walked towards the freezer door. He turned to Sam and smiled again, this time it was not a scared smile. Sam stood up, feeling her thigh pulsate, but Jacques had a plan, things were going to be fine, his plans always worked she thought, looking for a piece of wood to touch.

The freezer door swung open fast, an alien standing right behind the door hit the wall hard, almost going right through it. Three more aliens stood ready for the meat, they watched as something jumped out of the freezer towards the fallen alien, they all pounced. It was not until they all began ripping into the flesh that they realized that the flesh was already dead, and before they could turn, the carbine already began to blow them apart. The first wave of aliens would be easy.

Jacques and Sam ran out of the freezer towards the stairs leading up.

A rainfall of gunfire hit the aliens hard, they could not make it up the stairs to follow the two humans. They jumped from step to step, onto the walls and closer to them, but each time they got even a step closer, they would become acid melting the stairs, making it harder for them to get their prey.

The door leading onto the buildings roof slammed open, Sam jumped onto it first and looked back to see Jacques aiming at almost a dozen aliens, the carbine was close to empty, and just before the last bullet shot, Jacques raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger, and after only seconds, the aliens were no longer coming, they had made it, they were safe for now, as Jacques locked the heavy steal door behind them taking out his com.

. . .


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four.

He could not understand why he was in the cell this time, just remembering how Francis had been when throwing him into the dark room. Something did not feel right, he hoped that he would find out what was going on. But after what seemed like hours with not even any food, he knew that there was a problem. All he could do was sit and wait until someone would tell him, hoping that Kathy would believe that he was innocent of anything that he was supposed to have done.

Guy watched as the Spears' moved around on the other side of the one-way hologlass, something was happening on their side, and he hoped that it was something bad. Spears' were evil humans, if you could call them humans. And the familiar black cloaked figure standing around, directing the others. He was the general of the group, the one in charge, and someone he did not want to fuck with. But everything he saw slowly faded from his thoughts when a banging on the door behind him echoed within the cell, almost deafening.

The voices were muffled by the thick titanium door, but the banging continued. He held his hands against his ears to ease the ringing in his head, he moved to the door and with one heavy foot, banged back. All was silent after that, and he waited for the viewslot to open, but nothing. Now he was starting to get worried, something was definitely wrong and he wished that he would just be told what it was he had supposedly done. Guy took a few steps back from the door and sat on the solid steel fold-out bed.

Hours had seemed to have passed, the Spears' were no longer in view, so they must be out hunting for their gods. In the meantime voices now and again could be heard on the other side of the door, maybe he would soon find out what the hell was going on. And as he thought that, a clanging sound of the doors locks were pulled from the door, and slowly the door slanted open.

In stepped Francis followed by Demetri, they both stood in front of him, not making a sound, just looking at him. Guy remained sat down now looking up at Francis, noticing the hatred in his stare.

"Why did you do it Sanders?" Francis' question drew a blank and Guy could not answer. Demetri smirked at Guy from behind Francis' back, Guy noticed this smiled glare, then he realised that he was being set up, but for what he did not know. "She did not deserve what you had done to her you sick bastard!" And with that, Guy knew what was wrong, and his entire soul began to fall into darkness. Demetri now stood at Francis' side lifting up a small clipboard.

"What are you talking about, I don't have a clue what your talking about, just tell me damn it!" Finding all this rather irritating, all he wanted was answers.

"Corporal Guy Sanders, you have been found guilty of the horrific murder of Kathy Isabel Perry. This crime of first degree murder can give the sentence of death, and in this new world, we can find a punishment even worse than that." Demetri sounded serious when he spoke in front of Francis. "Do you wish to say anything before we collaborate on your punishment?" He was a smug piece of shit, and one day he would get his comeuppance.

"You really believe I would kill Kathy, you bastards..!" He was not thinking about what he was saying, his words meant nothing right now, suddenly everything began to make sense, the attitude of Francis when he was tossing him into the cell, gun raised always, waiting for the slightest of movement.

"Honestly Corporal Sanders, we don't know. Reading your file we can see your emotionally troubled, and all the evidence leads to you, so we can only assume." Francis did not stutter a word which he usually would do in a situation like this, he was being firm, but in charge. "Kathy was welled liked by all, and her fondness to you seemed irrational, and we cannot understand why you did it, but we will be just with this, just think of her brothers." Francis was not being his usual authority self, there was something else.

It was impossible to comprehend, he had been with Kathy a few nights ago, why would someone want to harm her, she was nothing but an angel in the depths of hell. Oh god, her brothers. Guy wondered to himself how they would be feeling, now that they had no one to look after them, and no matter what, Guy would show his innocence to everyone. But his heart now had a hole in it, everything he felt meant nothing right now, nothing .

Guy did not really know how to reply to any of this, Kathy was dead and he was getting the blame for it. He would never harm a hair on her head and now he was being found guilty for her murder, that bastard Demetri was going to get away with this no matter what he would say. He realised that maybe he could work something out, but it would not be by talking with these two pathetic excuses for humans. An idea was crossing his mind, and he would hope that Francis would go along with it, because he was not the smartest of men, but Demetri might be a problem.

"Stephen, please. I will accept any punishment given to me, but let me speak to Stephen." He needed to find out what was going on, and he knew that Stephen would listen to him guilty or not. But it would all depend on Francis, he was a leader first and a person second, and Guy knew that he would get this one thing, even if at that moment he was nothing more than a sick psychotic killer to the man.

"You ask for a big things Sanders', but we will get him, and you will both be guarded. Until then you will remain in the cell until your punishment." Francis may be a fat obnoxious arsehole, but he did everything by the book, and Demetri's angered face showed that he was pissed off by Francis' decision to allow him to talk with Stephen.

Demetri looked at Guy, turned and walked away without any further to say. Francis looked at Guy and his head sunk, he felt pain, for the first time Guy could see the pain in him, it took the loss of someone who barely liked him, but still, some emotion in such a man brought some thoughts to Guys, and it was then that he could see why the man was the way he was, always seeming so power hungry, he had no one. And a man with no one would hide his feelings from anyone who was around him. Maybe he was not that bad after all.

. . .

Chan was finding it hard to think, she pulled a short wire from the control panel and connected it to the small hole that would link up to her new mind-drive. She was unsure to actually use the device, but her body was able to use such hardware. She found it easier to cope with the fact that she was not completely human, and now she was taking advantage of being an android. Why not? If it would help.

And as her fingertips moved effortless over the ships control board, she found that she was locked out of the system, with no way to override it. Her thoughts stuck on the fact that she had no way of getting to Jacques, he was a few building away and she was helpless, and what was worse, she knew that Jacques would be telling Sam that they would be all right, she felt human once more, her feelings of guilt for the friends she could not help. But it did not mean that she would give up, until the engines ignite she would fight to save her friends, she was more human than anything, nothing could change that.

"Mother, what are my options on overriding the main control board?" Maybe the ship could help her, but most likely, she would be left with nothing. And she knew that asking the stupid computer would not do anything, but just In case, robot to robot, something might go right.

"SYSTEM OVERRIDE INACTIVE TO UNAUTHORISED PERSONAL, LOCK ON CONTROL CANNOT BE OVERRIDDEN BY COMPUTER PANEL."

Then it hit Chan hard, she was in the wrong part of the ship, she suddenly knew what she had to do, but it would mean shutting down the entire system, and that would be crazy, deactivating the 'Inferno Field', it would be suicide, the ship would be almost inviting the aliens in, but if they did not know. They had not seemed to be attacking the shield for quite a few minutes now, maybe, just maybe they had given up, but it would still be the most stupid thing she could do. And a moment later that decision was made as Chan headed down to the _Cerebus' _main computer control system at the bottom of the ship.

She made it down to sub-level one, she was getting closer to the brain of the ship, her feet echoed as her heavy feet stomped upon the floor grating. If she could shut down main system, somehow crash it, she may be able to restart the _Cerebus _control system and manually control the ignition of the engines so she would have complete control. Her only thought being on the 'Inferno Field', if the aliens knew that it was down, they would attack the ship, and nothing would stop them from getting in.

"Mother, open ships operation control." And the wall opened up, showing a series of wires and buttons. That is when it struck Chan hard, she had no clue how to deactivate the system, it was all about pulling the right wire, pushing the right button, chance played a great part in this. So she just reached for a series of coloured wires and pulled.

. . .

The door opened and in walked Stephen, his face emotionless as he stood in front of Guy. If he knew he would get away with it, he would make sure Guy would pay for killing Kathy. He had no doubt that Guy had not done it, everything pointed towards him, he was clearly mentally unstable, especially after hearing the story that took place on _Jevan. _Yet something was not right with all this, even he could feel that maybe all was not quite as it seemed. and all he knew was that he was about to find out what the hell was going on.

Guy looked right back at Stephen as the door shut behind him, Demetri's face the last thing Guy could see as the door closed and locked. And as the two were now alone, Guy stood up and stepped towards Stephen, who jumped back slamming into the door, Guy did not think twice and rushed up holding the boys mouth closed with his hand. Fear was in Stephen's eyes, fearful of his life.

"Do not speak, just listen." He took his hand away from Stephen's mouth, and the boy slowly slid down on the door to the cold floor. Trebling, he thought that he would be able to handle something so small, but even a friend could bring so much fear to him, he was a coward, but he was still young, he had time to grow up and be ready for anything. "I didn't kill Kathy, it was Demetri. You know I would not hurt her, any of you. I was set up." Stephen's was no longer trebling as Guy had said what he had.

"Why?" A simple question, but Guy could not answer, he would have to ask Demetri for the answer to that question. "Her body was torn apart, blood was everywhere, leaking into the hallway from her room." This being something Guy did not want to hear, but he knew that sooner or later he would have to know what happened, what she looked like after that sick bastard had mutilated her.

He knelt down and placed his right hand warmly onto Stephen's shoulder. Trying to calm the kid down who had now begun to cry. The kid was getting stronger, but no one should have to deal with what had happened to Kathy.

"We need to get away from this guy, he's trouble. You have to get everyone away from here, I can handle myself, but I know that the others are too young to be able to deal with any of this. Its up to you to get them into the east tunnels." Guy could trust Stephen with getting all the children out of the tunnels, and maybe get them to the surface, even to the city limit. The armoured core would be able to allow them safe passage, but with the alien infestation in the lower Manhattan areas it might be difficult.

Since the second fall of the city of New York the aliens have been placing hives all over, places unexpected. This world can sustain an infestation in any corner of the planet, and Manhattan was full of those perfect place. And the damn 'New World Leaders' are just watching the city now, its almost a prison. Yet if Stephen could get them to the perimeter, he might be able to get them screened, and allowed past quarantine.

Guy had been giving directions when a almost hysterical laughter echoed through the open viewslot, and as they both looked up to see Demetri smirking at them, it was closed again, and when Stephen jumped up to the door it was not opened by his cries. Guy just sat watching Stephen banging at the door, smashing his hands against the hard cold metal, knowing well that it would only hurt him by hitting the door.

"We're both stuck in here Stephen, just sit down." Stephen did not want to listen and kept hitting his fists against the metal, until the dark silvery colour had now turned red with the blood of the boys hands. Guy jumped up and grabbed him and pulled him away from the door. "Stop it, there's nothing we can do." Yet Stephen fought to be let go. After a few minutes of fighting to be let go his body went limp.

"What now?" Once again a question Guy did not know the answer of, he did not have a clue what to do, he was stuck in a room overlooking a group of humans who did not show any shreds of humanity.

"I really have no clue!" And that was the only answer he could give, fighting against a race of monstrous aliens is one thing, even trying to survive from being killed by an alien bred to hunt. Right now, he was stuck, somewhat ready to die and it was not a species from another world, it was the species that were born of his home planet. Nothing could scare Guy, until he realised how vicious humanity really was, they did not deserve this planet, they had lost it twice. "I can feel something bad, something is going to happen."

. . .


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five.

Jacques looked over the city, staring at the wonder of the skyline, being able to see _Grant Tower_ in all its fallen glory. Goddamn human stupidity, losing what we had lost once before. The monsters that were the 'Spears', hiding the eggs in the Under city. We might of got through it, unfortunately, similar to a bubble rising from the depths of the deepest ocean, it had to pop some time, just Jacques was not expecting it so soon after finally taking back the planet. And he now believed that he could no longer be able to call it home.

He took Sam in his arms, caressing her soft skin, kissing the softer hair, tasted almost salty with sweat, but her femininity still shone through like the rays of the sun, and she was beautiful.

It was not the place he wanted to be anymore, he had fought for the world for far too long, and for what? Everything he fought for was destroyed. And the timing could of been better he thought, wanting a few years of well earned peace, but Cryo-sleep stole a lot of their time, even though they had killed the Emperor Alien, they were still felons for stealing the _Nexus_, so their punishment was cryo slumber, 'bastards. He had finally told her of his love for her, and when she told him that she returned his love, he dreamt of a home with his soul-mate. Life is not like that though, things do not always go as planned, everything went wrong.

Returning to Earth was the beginning, something did not seem right when they landed on the new world. They had settled for a little while and the aliens taking it over again, luckily the globe wasn't completely retaken, it was greatly quarantined so at least it was not as bad, but a lot of what was rebuilt was again destroyed by the monsters.

They would of been babychow themselves if Chan hadn't of come for them, but right now, their fateful situation once more leads them into a face off with the demons they have lived with for most of their lives. And Chan is having her own problems, knowing that maybe she cannot help this time, only being a few minutes from them, yet in reality, she was a lifetime away. Jacques could only hold Sam, not wanting to admit their fate.

It was the sound of the _Cerebus' _engines that caused a faint sigh of distress in Sams soul, knowing that she would finally lose the fight against the aliens, that had plagued her life for what seemed an eternity. She would think back at surviving on _Pluto Spacestation_, the first time she would meet Jacques, grabbing her and running, watching the monsters crawling from every direction, headed towards them, the screams in the dark distance, down the intestine looking corridors. And the Emperor, hunting them.

And finally, coming into view, the _Cerebus. _Jacques had to admit, even though the ship was uncontrollable, the slightest circuit fried would cause the ship to blow. It was still an impressive creation, only wishing it was made a little bit better, for situations like this one, where it would strand human life on a hellish planet. Jacques could not help but think, the ships A.I, _Mother_, would be ruled by _Asimovs _three rules of robots, just like the androids had been programmed, impossible to harm human life. So why on this god forsaken place is _Mother_, going against those rules? Then again, Chan broke the three rules. It made no sense, and Jacques knew that it would be a question that would never be answered. After all, it was just a ship.

Jacques com sounded, it was Chan. "Hey Jacques..." What else could she say, because right now, if anyone would feel like shit, it would have to be Chan, and Jacques knew this. Believing that she would have fought to keep them from being stranded, doomed. But when it came down to it, some things are inevitable, maybe it was just their time, fates way of saying , 'Just accept it, you cannot run anymore.' Honestly, Jacques hated the fact that he would have to just take what was given to him, fate was never his friend, hated it almost as much as the monsters that took his world.

"Chan, thank you for trying." Did he sound sarcastic, maybe Chan would see it the way he was meaning it to sound, no sarcasm at all, just a loss of words that would sound like a kick in the ribs.

"I can't stop the ship Jacques... I can't deactivate the main system without causing the ship to hit critical. It would fry us all..." Chan did not want to be saying this, she only wished that she had good news for them, but right now, she was stuck on the ship without a paddle to row back to shore. "I don't know what to do?" Jacques understood, he did not blame Chan for not being able to help, she tried and that is all that mattered, he had not given up all hope, maybe she could come back.

"Chan... Don't worry, we will be fine." Was he actually saying this? He was crazy, finally, he realised it, he was mad, a loony. And both Chan and Sam laughed, they already knew that Jacques was crazy, from the day they met him. "But there might be something you can do to help." Jacques held on tight to Sam, looking at her he smiled, a warm smile, strong.

He took out a small pocket device, a palm computer. "I am sending a inventory list for _Mother._ There should be no problem with this, but you will have to see this through." Jacques would not give up, he would not let the aliens win, and he wanted Sam to not be frightened, as long as he had hope, it would be enough for the both of them. He pressed a small red button, sending a transmission to the ship. Confirmed arrival of shipping commands.

"Ammo, impact suits, acid shielding and scimatic-sensors..!" Chan knew then that Jacques would go down fighting, she always knew. And something told her that maybe he would be okay. Yet a feeling inside told her that she would not see Sam or Jacques ever again, that feeling burning deeply into her stomach. She pressed a few buttons, and it was done. The rooftop co-ordinates had been set and in a few moments the _Cerebus _would send a final helping hand to Jacques. "Hey Declan, don't do anything stupid, just kill the fuckers." And with that the Ammo crate appeared from nowhere, right in-front of Jacques and Sam.

"You know me Chan, once I got an idea, nothing is going to change it, unless a big fifteen foot alien super queen is standing in-front of me, then I am just fucked!" At least Jacques had regained some of his weak-ass humour. Sam took the com from Jacques, raising it to her mouth she pressed the button to talk.

"Emma, please look after Emily for me, shes not been the same since losing our dad." Sam could only think about the young woman her sister would become. And who knows, maybe one day she will see her again, not anytime soon, but one day. "We will not let these things beat us." And with that, the _Cerebus'_ engines ignited to full and the ship lifted into the air, slowly moving out of view as it disappeared into the thick grey clouds of what was once Earth's beautiful blue sky, now just faded shades of grey.

Coms was lost and Chans' last words were not heard. She thought that it would be a good thing for them not to hear what she was going to say, but as she looked down at the screen, showing the final images of the rooftop, her eyes became full of horror when she saw shimmering blackened blue figures covering where Jacques and Sam had been resting. Chan could only hope and pray for their safety, she was no longer able to help them, as the ship was now entering the endless depths of space, heading towards _Ethian-5 _spaceport.

. . .

It had now been days, and the activity on the other side of the glass was picking up. The Spears' now seemed to be more than busy, preparing for something important, and Guy wished to know what. Watching as they would come by, in groups or threes' and fours', hauling large metallic crates, and it was after a couple of days that Guy had realised what had to be in those crates, but talking to Stephen about it would obviously cause the kid to be rather fearful of his life, even more so than it was at this moment in time.

Aliens, Guy was sick of aliens. Everywhere he went he would be stuck trying to fight for his life, hiding. And being on Earth made him feel even worse, if any Planet was to be taken over, it had to be his home, it was his fate and he accepted it, there was nothing he could do. Monsters from other regions of the galaxy were meant to be in his life and there was nothing he could do apart from not give up and fight, and everyday, he hoped that he would get to the point where it was all over, not with his death, but with the deaths of every alien life on this planet.

Humanity was a terrible species on the planet, but with all tyranny, with all the evil, there was also great beauty. True most of that beauty was now gone, destroyed and taken away, but the human soul would never die. There would always be artists, and those with dreams of a better world, but right now, hope was slowly fading away as he watched the next group of Spears' waltz past the holo-glass holding what could only be an alien egg in a thin metal box. Humanity will always fall to religious beliefs, it was what our species did best.

The aliens may have their continuing fight for total planet domination, _Darwin's 'Survival of the fittest'_, but right now, it was the humans of the planet that were the ones trying to survive, and they were becoming the young or injured gazelle in the high grass, with the lions slowly ever-so quiet ready to pounce and end it all.

"Stephen, wake up kid." Guy gently shuck the young man sleeping. After a few seconds the gentle shaking became heavier, waking the kid up. "Come on Stephen, something is happening outside." And with one heavy shake the boy jumped with a slight shock startling him up, causing him to gasp for a few breathes of air and heavy panting.

"Bad dreams..." Stephen's eyes let Guy see the pain he was feeling, nothing had been going well for many years, especially after the aliens retook Earth, and with all the humans being stuck below ground in the abandoned cities. What made it worse was the Spears', aliens they could handle, but Spears' were evil traitorous bastards who believed in a fake god, but again, humanity would fall short on the religion picking. And gods and saviours would take many forms. Sadly the monsters that were the aliens would become some of humanities reaching hand of hope. "So what's new?"

Guy did not want to tell Stephen what was really going on, but he knew that he would have to. The area had been alien free for so long, the Spears' kept the tunnels safe, maybe the alien queen had somehow telepathically controlled the evil men and women into getting a new implantation chamber ready, gathering poor souls to become alien breeding chambers. Something was happening on the other side, something big, not good.

"Alien eggs Stephen, alien eggs!" And with that Stephens' head sunk further downwards towards hell, but Guy knew that the world he lived in was the fiery pit.

. . .

Jacques grabbed Sam and threw her of the side of the building, her screams echoed as she fell from the high-rise rooftop. Her body aimed for the empty street below, with a thick hovering fog now covering the pavement. Jacques watched her falling, his eyes not leaving her as she fell, and just seconds before she would hit the ground, a faded blue glow surrounded her body as her impact suit activating causing her body to slow down instantaneously, protecting her from the shear g-force and impact of the fall.

Sam felt her butt softy touch the cold stone floor, and without thinking her eyes went straight up, looking up at the building top. Fear running through her body as she heard Jacques now fully loaded Carbine begin to fire. After a few rounds had been fired, all was silent and Sam took her mind of the rooftop and looked around the street level to see if she had any company, and to her horror half a dozen red shaded chromed headed aliens leapt from the higher sewer entrance on the other side of the street.

They darted towards her, their great speed a blur to Sam. Her eyes focused on their red claws, talons ready to rip her apart, if only, probably take her to the nest.

Closer they got, a lifetime had gone by, but only a split second had passed. Before the red aliens could get any closer their bodies blew apart as anti-acid rounds tore through them from above as Jacques landed on his feet just a metre away from Sam, and with his scarred face, he looked at her and smiled, as three bloodied alien heaps of dead flesh hit the ground around him.

"I warned them not to follow me." And his smile became a humorous smirk and Sam returned the happy smile, but it was short lived as a dozen aliens came towards them from down the street, and as the rounds fired the two alien killers moved back into the direction of the old under-city. _New Hope City_ was where they were headed, nothing would keep them away from the tunnels that would hide them from the monsters. As they both now had their carbines raised.

. . .


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six.

Captain Casious Clegg, known to his men as Triple C and TC, or as his friends call him, just Clegg. Watching the hidden cameras positioned around the quarantined sector 'Manhattan', a smile on his face as he thinks about his strategic battle against the aliens, taking a deep drag of his _New Cuban_ cigar, tasting its smoothness as he exhales the thick smoke in a triumphant ring. Followed by a heavy gagging cough for air, not his usual taste, but he would become accustomed to such privileges, oh how high society live.

The door opens and a young man enters holding a clipboard, moving up to the Captain, standing to attention with his hand in a solute to show his respect to the well known hero of the _Alien War_. "Captain Clegg..."

"Call me TC soldier, what is your name boy?!" And his smile shot out at the young soldier. Clegg laughed thinking that the kid was probably still in diapers, shit stains included.

"Frank Sir, Franklin Sebastian II... Junior... Third-class marine, Information Specialist." This was just funny, Clegg was laughing on the inside. This poor kid, a info catcher, what a sad role to play in this war for Earth. But everyone was important, so he would still have respect for the kid, just that his job was not really needed, just someone who got the details from someone else and they have to pass it on, a messenger, always ready to be shot for giving any type of news, good or bad. The old saying, 'I am just the messenger.." Something along those lines anyway.

"At ease Frank, what can I do for you?" A simple question, hoping for a quick simple none-chaotic answer. But with the alien threat becoming once again a problem, nothing was quick and simple, apart from death if one of those fuckers got you.

The soldiers soluted hand moved to his side, relaxing for the first time that day, the long forty hour day that he had been on, dull and ever so boring on his long watcher shift. "Xenomorphs have been acting strangely in Sector 5b, just outside the _New Hope _entrance gate." Reading from the paper on the clipboard he handed it over to his superior. "Sensors have picked up a cloaked ship leaving the site. Scans read the ship to be clean..."

"Have the ship scanned again and sent to _Ethian-5... _Can you read what is on the boat?" Cleggs eyes lit up, something had got past his scanners, on entry, someone at the Spaceport was going to fry for this, probably some little snot punk sleeping when he should of been working hard, keeping his eye on the screen. Yet Clegg was not really angry, you cannot catch them all, someone would come to Earth now and again, you can't waste time catching them all. "Franklin, boy, send this note to General Matherson."

And with the note Clegg was handed him, he soluted one last time and was given permission to make haste and deliver the note to the General. Clegg looked at the chart on the clipboard Frank hand given to him, he knew that ships could get past, but the activity scale was overly unacceptable, someone was still in the sector after the boat jumped orbit. And alien confrontation was nearly minimal nowadays in Manhattan, something that was not right was happening, and that is when Clegg re-lit his cigar and let out a heavy disgruntled cough, taking his eyes back to the security cameras.

. . .

Guy kept watching the Spears work, and after what seemed like days, nothing had been happening. Whatever they had been doing must be done and anything involving alien eggs can only be trouble. The last time anyone had left them any food had nearly been three days and Demetri was just being humane, the evil side of humane. And they grew more hungry with each passing hour. Guy kept his eyes on Stephen, who only a couple of hours ago began to pass out.

The faint light that kept the cell lit flickered, then a high pitched alarm echoed from outside the cell. That could only mean that someone had breached the hidden entrance, and no Spear would ever find that. Then as Stephen jumped up to the sound coming from outside, that is when Guy realised what was wrong, it was the aliens, they were here. And he was stuck in this damn room, wanting to help the children, hoping that Francis will do something to protect them, but his life was probably worth more than theirs, so it was up to him to get out and put the aliens down.

"Guy, what's going on?" Stephens voice trembled as he stood up and hurried over to Guy standing at the door, his fists pressed up against the cold heavy and very hard metal. He was stuck, he could do nothing but hope for their safety.

"Aliens, they have most probably got into the tunnels. All the Spear activity, harvesting the eggs, and no doubt they had some captives ready for impregnation." Guy still facing the door, trying to listen to what was happening outside the door, his right ear up close to the coldness that kept them trapped. "We will be safe in here." He hoped as he kept his ear to the door, listening.

_WHAM_!... Guy jumped back, almost falling over Stephen, well balanced he stayed on his feet.

_CLANK_!... Stephen ran to the far corner of the room moving close to the floor curling himself up into a protected ball, whimpering loudly.

_THUNT_!... Stepping close to Stephen, Guy reached down and put his hand on the boys shoulder, grabbing him, shaking him to be quiet. Knowing what the heavy thumping on the other side of the door was, but not even a dent was seen, they were safe for now. The thick heavy door protected them from the monster trying to get in, and for those few moments, Guy thanked God for his mercy for holding the door.

. . .

Franklin Sebastian Junior was walking rather quickly, standing tall at just over six foot, with heavy footsteps due to his rather large stomach, almost running to the Generals office. The kid had been in boot camp for only a few months up until he was called into the _Manhattan Conflict_. He accepted the fact earth had gone to hell and that after only a few years of winning it back, it was lost again. And all he wanted was to be with his family, but sadly they were light years away on the _Orion_ space station, at least they were safe. Knowing the aliens and how they destroy everything, one of them probably got to the space station and killed everyone.

Ever since everything turned to shit, there was nothing but sadness in every ones eyes, and Sebastian could see this. He may only be a messenger boy but right now, but at least he was on the line and anything could happen, three weeks of boot camp could not train someone for this, unless of course that person was a psychopathic alien killer.

As Sebastian was only a few yards away from the Generals office he remembered some reports from previous alien encounters. Maybe the story of Corporal Wilks brought some inspiration and hope to his life, the aliens may of taken his home and a lot of his friends. He knew in his heart that they would not take his hope, that he kept held onto. And with that thought he took his final rushed steps to the office, and with a raise of his right hand he knocked on the door with a heavy thud.

"Come in!" The deep angry voice crept through the door, as if a hammer was hitting it hard. Sebastian was sure that he could feel wood splinters fly and stab into him, but he knew that no matter how loud a voice was, it could not break through a door. Silly little thoughts as he turned the door handle and walked in, already raising his hand into a salute, but not even a quick movement and given respect would bring a authoritical smile in to his direction.

The Generals office was dull grey, with almost burnt pine looking furniture. His desk covered a large area of the room and was neatly presented. There were only a few pictures in the office, one being of a twentieth century cityscape and the other being one of his family, long since deceased, some of the first to have disappeared in the second Manhattan attack, but from stories Sebastian had heard, the General was not really the family type, never leaving the complex, always deeply into his work.

He had to feel sorry for the man, sitting in his uncomfortable looking red leather chair, the only colour in the room. He was overly overweight and was balding, a frown always on his flat unhappy looking face. He spent most of his time just sitting in his office commanding the troops from voice-com and holo-screen, he did not wish to walk the station and be friendly with the grunts, he thought himself better than that, every ones superior.

"What do you want boy?" The Generals voice echoed around the empty looking room, somewhat depressing and scarily non-tranquil. And Sebastians' momentary salute fell down as he took a step closer to the Generals desk, he could feel his stomach turning, was it his nerves or the strange smell coming from where the General was sitting, a slight intake of extra air and he replied.

"Captain Clegg asked me to deliver this note to you, he said it was urgent and would need your uttermost attention." That was a scary thing for him to say, telling a General that a Captain wanted him to do something, he was just the messenger and he could see the Generals face begin to boil and when the red face closed his eyes for a slight second, it gave Sebastian just enough time to take a quick step away from the desk, luckily the General did not notice, he was too busy trying to breathe and count to ten.

And then a sudden reaction that Sebastian was not expecting as the General begun to read the note, his eyes opened wide, his breathing became slightly deeper, almost reaching out for more oxygen, and then came a reply to what Sebastian had said to him.

"Thank you Sebastian." Could this be, he not only remembered his name but he said 'thank you', something must really be wrong that the General would act this way. "Boy, carry on with your duties." Was that it, deliver a note of such importance and get back to work, now he wanted to know what was on the note, but right now, he did not want to displease the General, as he looked at the man who was now reaching for the bottom drawer of his desk. "Get out of my office now boy!"

Sebastian had not moved so fast in his life, he was out of the office and up the corridor so fast he could feel that he had left his body in the office and his legs were just running, but he now had time to relax, so he stopped for a few breathes. Leaning against the walls he almost gasped for air, he needed a drink so he stood up and breathed as normally as possible and headed into the direction of the mess-hall, and as he was almost at the first corner away from the Generals office...

_...BANG!_

The chair was no longer the only thing with colour now in the Generals office.

. . .


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven.

"The alarms had not gone off and the marines had no warning, the massacre lasted only fifteen minutes and no one was left alive apart from those who would be taken back to the hive and impregnated. And for those poor souls, they would wish they were dead. _Sector-1_ 'Marine Command Bunker' was overrun by the xenomorph at 0300hrs and without the motion sensors activated they did not stand a chance." The deep voice echoed around the mess hall, faces looked glum and upset at the great loss. Poor bastards, no one deserved that kind of death, but nowadays, it was almost expected, especially in the front-line.

It was the look of horror on every single face in the room, jaws dropped at the inevitable forthcoming news which each day they had expected. Sadly their wishes for the day never to arrive had not been granted, they were now facing their demons head on, knowing that they would not be able to fight them without losing. The aliens were coming and soon they would share the same fate as those in the other sectors, they would no longer walk free as humans, they would be running scared as a sparrow swoops from a hawk.

"Xenomorph activity shows that Sectors four and three were the first to go. When Ground-Zero was destroyed it shows that the intelligence of the creatures has improved, so a Queen must be in the Manhattan area." The man talking was the now General Clegg, his command was given to him due to the sudden departure of the late General Matherson. His lack of remorse showed him as what the others believed him to be, an optimist on the war for Earth.

He stood at the front of the mess hall standing in front of all of his men, he knew that the news he was giving them would be hard to accept at first, but he was damned to let this news be the end.

"General Clegg." One of the corporals spoke out. "What does that mean?" A question that was on every ones minds, they had to know what this meant, if commands had been falling to the alien threat, maybe it meant that they would be next, and surely they would have to get out of the area, but with nowhere to go, they were left with nothing but their deaths to comfort them.

Another corporal spoke out, but answering the others question. Information Specialist AJ Combs stood up and looked over every frowning face, then over to the General for permission to answer the question, and with a returned nod of approval, he looked back over the troops and coughed to get ready to talk out loud.

"Communications with West Village Command and Liberty Island was lost at 0315hrs. All communications for a Space drop is unreachable due to our satellites being destroyed by the aliens. And unfortunately, due to Xenomorph procedure, any complex with a possible threat must be left for twenty-four hours of last communication, sadly with the sensors picking up movement of the xenomorphs in the surrounding vicinity we won't be able to wait until the deadline and a ship is dropped for pickup will not help us." And with those final words, every last beating heart skipped a beat and began to race. And AJ sat down looking now over to the General.

"The ship off this hellhole is in _Sector-2_, meaning that we would be going into the field, with possible threat not only in the area, but also highly hostile." He had to show them that he was strong and willing not to give up, unlike his previous superior. "At 1630hrs I will be leaving this base of command and be heading for the transport boat in _Sector-2_, and I hope that you will decide to join me, but you have to know, it will not be a walk in the park, some, no a lot of us are most probably going to die." His great words of wisdom brought deep gasps of breathe from most of the room. "Honestly though, would you rather die without fighting, or go down crying in a corner? Me, I am going down with whatever humanity I have left."

A cheer arose in the mess hall that echoed throughout the entire complex, and sitting in his room just relaxing was Sebastian, without a care in the world, already knowing what was going on, he was the messenger of-course, it was just the sudden departure of the General that was getting to him, taking his hope away. The choices we make do affect the life we lead, and right now he was finding it hard to take that step forward, remembering seeing the brain and skull covering the wall of Mathersons office.

Echoing around the complex the cheering finally calmed and it was now almost silent, apart from the ventilation system always humming in your ear. Sebastian sat just staring out of the window looking over the mist covered city. He once believed that he was safe, but with everything going to hell so quickly, he was not so sure anymore. He had friends in _Sector-1_, good friends he would want to fight these monsters with, but now, they were gone and the monsters were coming. Soon he would not be able to turn his back away, even though he was just the messenger, he did not wish to be where he was.

A low buzzing as the door slid open with a whoosh of air causing Sebastian to shiver with a sudden chill. It was Clegg, and given the fact they hardly knew each other, he had a lot of respect for the man, he was not in this war for the benefits if we won, or the thrill of the kill like most of those in charge. He could see that the man only cared about fighting for his planet back, and yes, if it meant taking down a whole race of aliens to do so, it was a bonus.

"Come on Seb, wake up!" In his own little world Sebastian hardly noticed at first that it even was his commanding officer. "You are coming with me little buddy." What did he say, he was going into hell to reach heaven? Insane bastard, maybe he should walk into a hive screaming to the monsters to just take him and make babychow of him.

"Sir, I would prefer to stay here." Maybe it was his sudden loss of hope that caused him to see that there was nothing to live for anymore in this world. Or maybe he just no longer had a will to live. "I think I would be better here." And lifting his head and looking up to the General, his eyes still lowered imagining the mist creeping over the city outside the window, envisioning the monsters coming towards them, claws ready to rip them apart. If it was not for Clegg raising his voice to him, he would still be in that place.

"That is an order boy and you will do what I ask of you. You will be coming with us, no questions asked." His deep voice sounding even deeper now, slight anger, but hesitation for the warmth for his friend. "Seb, come on man, you have to come with us, we need someone like you to give the troops some kinda.. some sort of.. damn, maybe I just want you around." You would not normally hear something like that coming from a superior, but the fact that maybe when Clegg found Sebastian stood staring at what was left of Matherson, maybe he thought that the kid needed someone to help him find his way.

Sebastian stood up and smiled at the General, reaching for his jacket. He reached over to the control panel on the wall next to his bed and pressed a small blue button. The blinds on the window shut and all went dark for a moment until the flicker of lights kicked in, a slight hum louder than the vents and like magic, we have light. They both stood at the doorway of Sebs' quarters. The door still open from when Clegg walked in, now with a slight smile on his face, knowing that maybe there was something more to this kid than meets the eye, he might be scared and he might of lost hope, but the fact he is not willing to just sit here and die meant something.

"Just a messenger Sir, just a messenger. Alien killer was not on the list when I was in training, but hey, if it means living, then why not give it a go." And like that he was ready, a tap on the Generals shoulder and he began to walk out of his quarters. "General, we're going to die aren't we?" And those words brought a cold silence to the darkened hallway.

"Just a human with some hope left Seb, just a human with some hope..."

. . .

He really did not have a clue where they were going, he just ran, looking back every second heartbeat to make sure they were not being followed, and knowing the aliens, they were close behind them. He hoped that maybe he could find somewhere they could not go, but these creatures could go almost anywhere, too similar to cockroaches. And as they ran close to the entrance of the under city, he could only wish that maybe there would be someone down there who could help them, and right now, he knew that they would need some help as he raised the carbine once more up into the air and pressed down lightly on the trigger, the shrieks of the aliens as they splattered over the walls, that began to crumble to the acid.

And as the entrance gloomed over, and the last alien fell to his explosive rounds, there was silence, no longer were the aliens chasing them. It made no sense for the first few moments, then it hit Jacques hard. They were close to a hive, but that would not be logical for an alien queen, to be right near to the entrance to the outside, the demons would normally be deep underground hiding, far underground where it was the darkest.

"Samantha, this does not make sense." Sam was breathing heavily, and bent over rubbing her injured leg, she was not really paying attention to Jacques at that moment, she was trying to deal with the pain that was searing through her body. "Sam... Run!" Almost grabbing her he took of into the direction of the entrance, only ten metres away, Sam almost falling as she was being pulled, not understanding the sudden pull of Jacques. But she did not hesitate and picked up her feet and ran with him, and as they got only steps away from the entrance.

A large blackened metal door fell down, with a loud deafening thud it hit hard causing them both to fall backwards with a heart pounding shock. It now had dawned on Jacques why the nest was at the entrance, it was impossible though, not of this size.

"Fucking Spears', its a hive." His head quickly began to pan around the area, trying to take in every shadow, every scent, and that when he stood up, moving up to the door and with heavy fists began to hit hard with everything part of his strength. Sam jumped up grabbing his shoulder, trying to calm him down. She would not be able to get any words in now, Jacques was a man of anger. "The under city, its one giant hive. That's why the alien activity seemed overwhelming. They have been planning an attack since the city was taken back by us."

"But how was that possible, the command areas are guarded with advanced motion detectors. It would be impossible to do anything without someone knowing." Sam was always unable to see what was obvious, staring her straight in the face, then it clicked. "It is one fucked up experiment, expendable assets as per usual." She was getting sick of the guy in charge, not caring about who dies as long as he lives, sickening.

"This whole sector, Manhattan was just a sick Commanders idea of a science project. It's simple really, just look at the facts, because the aliens had grown in sudden numbers, the best thing to do was to lock down the entire area and just see what happens. Learn from a stupid mistake by making another one." His words did make sense, but how could something like this happen Sam thought to herself, that was the question that she wanted the answer to, she listened to Jacques' theory.

"Look at it this way. Spears' can be anyone really, an unexpected person, your Superior Officer, your best friend, your brother, it doesn't really matter. All they have to do is hide an egg, maybe two rf three, and hope that a queen comes from one of them, whose to know. With the sudden incline in crimes lately, you would not question a few ugly faces going missing. And that's when you strike, when you do not suspect it, when you believe all is suddenly right in the world. They were planning this from day one to learn if we could control their fucking threat." And that was it, we had not truly won back our world, the aliens were smarter than we gave them credit for.

Jacques took Sams hand and lifted it up to his lips, gently kissing her soft skin. He looked up and smiled, then let go of her hand, turning and raising his carbine, she lifted hers also and followed him as he began to step slowly into the darkness ahead of them, who knows what they were going to find in the maze of the under city. One thing was for sure, they were once again in the pits of hell.

. . .


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight.

Stephen now sat motionless listening to the hissing coming from the other side of the cold iron door. Tears of fear rolled over his cheeks, dripping onto the floor creating a small sea. And with each heavy thumping sound of the alien trying to get in, he remained silent, knowing that if they knew that there was someone in there, the monsters would not give up and in only a matter of minutes, they would find away in. So for that moment, he kept himself from even breathing deeply, hiding the slightest sound with yet another tear.

On the other side of the room, listening to the now calming sounds of the aliens outside the cell, was Guy. His ear now up against the door once more, trying to hear if the aliens had moved on or were waiting for the tasty humans on the inside to come on out of their dark cave. Lucky for Guy, the aliens probably did not know that the humans in the room were stuck in there, so waiting for them to come out was useless. Sadly, Guy also knew that an alien would not quit so easily, and sooner or later, it would get in, somehow.

Silence, and peace. There was nothing now, they were both stuck in the cell as if it was hours earlier, with no threat. Guy rested on the icy floor, trying to get comfortable, but the hard lead he lay on was too cold and solid to relax. So he sat up leaning against the door, now taking his attention away from the knowledge of the aliens finding a way to get into the cell. He looked over to the holo-glass, his mind on the Spears that had forced this evil upon them. It was not enough that they had brought the eggs to the tunnels, but the lack of humanity in the so-called humans was sickening.

Monsters ran around the tunnels once more, even more so than months earlier when the outbreak of the alien threat was in the public news. There was nothing that could be done and hiding was the only option, but now, their hiding hole was found, and Guy hoped that maybe the children were safe, sadly, knowing what the aliens could do, and even what the Spears could do, he knew in the bottom of his aching heart, they were all dead. His mind on the poor souls, not even living a real life, they had not even lived long enough to experience anything real to life.

His mind slowly faded away from the sorrowed thought when he saw movement. He shuck his head to see a figure darting past the one-way window. And when he looked closer he could see that it was Francis, oh my god it was Francis, why was he on the other side of the glass Guy thought to himself. Then it hit him, he was captured by the Spears, and he knew what had gone down. They had all been used for impregnation. But this was different, he was running for his life, if he had an alien inside him, he would not have to be running, unless he got away before an embryo was planted.

As Francis ran, he turned his head towards the wall, looking at it his eyes opened wide as he ran towards the wall with his hands out. Delusions creeping over his mind, he saw hope, but it was taken away from him as he was crushed onto the floor, a black monster on his back, dripping a thick slime from its mouth as it lowered its teeth down to the back of Francis' neck. The Last thing the poor man heard was the creatures hissing and then it all went black.

"He was running at the glass, he was running at the fucking glass." Stephen was talking out loud becoming hysterical, and as much as Guy wanted to ignore what was being said, the kid was right. Francis was running right to them, he could see them. He did not really understand, how could Francis of known. He looked over to Stephen who was just staring at what was left of Francis, whose blood had now sprayed over the window. Guy thought about how Francis could of seen them, and when he realized what was going on, it clicked inside of this head.

"Demetri, that fucking piece of shit." Guy knew now that Demetri had to of been a Spear, he had to be. It all made sense now, how else would they of been able to live for so long as close as they were. The Spears' had to of known of their presence, and they were waiting until they had got their little messiahs from the Queen. "Stephen, get away from the window, hide from the goddamn window!" But as Guy looked back he could see that it was too late, the black glistening monster stood with its extended second set of razor sharp teeth pressing up against the two-way window, steam causing slight condensation. Its gooey gelled slime dripping from its mouth, its almost silver teeth shining brightly.

Guy could almost hear it hissing at them, noticing one thing, it was looking directly at him.

. . .

They had not heard anything from any of the other Sectors for over nine hours, which was a problem, especially with the probable chance of the aliens causing maximum destruction in the command bunkers. With Ground Zero being taken the possibility of total xenomorph takeover was more and more likely to happen, and sadly, Clegg knew that it was only time until the monsters came huffing and puffing. He was getting his shit together, his anti-acidic body armor and electro-carbine were charging, and in a matter of minutes he would take a group of soldiers and civilians, and get the hell of Manhattan.

He had tried to be strong with all that was taking place, but his nerves were slowly breaking, and it did not matter that he had finally fought his _Fire_ addiction, his blood was burning. He was stronger than this, he took a second to try and calm himself down, but that was met with him throwing the box of his cigars across the room, smashing hard onto the wall. He felt the splinters of wood hitting his face. His now humorous thoughts went out to the price he had paid for the luxury of those cigars, then realized that he would give up everything and anything to live, and with the addiction hitting him hard, he reached for a plastic bottle and squeezed now warm water over his warmer face.

One thing that he knew for sure, he would not give up, he would not lose to the aliens. He had fought for too long to just fall to the monsters that had taken everything on his home planet, and he would keep fighting, for himself and for the group of young men and women that would be coming with him to get off the planet, or maybe just to a safer Sector, but right now, he was not sure if any of the other areas were compromised, he had not heard any signals from any of the other city sensors. And that was unusual, even with the total satellite shutdown, they should still be hearing from on-world signals, but nothing had been received.

A thought crossed his mind, maybe this stretched out further than just Manhattan. Maybe the planet had been taken over again, but that could not be possible. The aliens could not be that smart, but with all the sudden activity, it could be possible, and what was with that ship, at least no one was taken, sensors only picked up non-humanoid or non-organic material. Most likely it was a failed rescue attempt on lost survivors in the city. And that is when it made more sense, the under city had not been monitored as much in the recent months, yet the sensors down there would show us something, but nothing had reach his office. Something went on down there, and someone up here knew about it.

"General sir, motion in the far-east quadrant." Sebs voice was almost fearful, knowing what was beginning. Clegg looked at the soldier and threw him a smile, trying to let him know that everything would be okay, but he was not sure that he even believed himself. As the alarms began to sound, echoing around the whole station. "What do you want to do?" Looking at Clegg hoping for an answer that would be brilliant and would save them, but Clegg was not sure, he was not expecting the aliens for hours. Amazed at how fast they moved across the city, then again, they probably knew the city better than any human that once lived there years earlier.

"The security room, get everyone in the security room. Its got a drop hatch to the tunnel out of the complex, we can elude the threat that way, and with the security cams we can watch their movement, we have the advantage because we know the base." He moved over to the voice panel by the door, pressing the small triangular green button, holding it down. "Activate the Sentinel marines." Now looking over to Seb, again smiling. "With the new advanced xeno-biochemical armour. The Z-110x Acid-Neautralizing Combat Wardrobe." Now smirking, Seb could only return the Generals optimism.

They all hurried to the safety of the base security room. The room itself was a safety bunker, and well hidden from the naked eye, only those whose job it was to be in there knew where it was, and now they had company. Luckily it was a large room that could hold up to twenty fully equipped marines and have enough space to tango. Dancing was not on their minds right now, it was the loud thudding of the aliens at the base entrance. Yet they felt safe with the blast doors sealed shut, nothing could get past them, and the aliens became louder, hissing turned to shrieking.

One of the security cameras looking upon the blast doors was showing the heavy impact marks on the large iron door. Clegg kept his eyes on the door, watching at the shear strength of the monsters will to get into the base. They showed only hatred at each head smashing into the door, and the sound, thumping metal, sounding louder than the bases' alarms, it was amazing really, a will for death and destruction. The creatures way of living was frightful, they would get to someone without any hesitation of their own deaths, as long as the Queen told them to do something, they would not go against her.

"Just look at them, its scary. There must be hundreds of them." Corporal Baxter spoke out loud, almost trembling at the sight before him, the monsters pouring into the base, on all sides of the corridor, floor, walls and ceilings. It was astonishing just as much as it was frightening, watching the aliens coming in, as they moved like a wave of darkness taking over the light, and then the camera went into a fuzzy broken static. Camera-one was down, as if the aliens knew what they were, damn, they probably did. "Shit they move fast." Everyone in the room just looked at him.

Black domed heads covered the corridor in darkness, the light from outside could no longer be seen as the aliens piled in, like ants almost. The aliens were similar to insects and the way they moved was creepy, if only they had six legs they would look like large mutant ants. Yet the soldiers could not visualise hundreds of ants taking over their base and killing a city full of civilians. These monsters came in with their claws sharpening themselves on the walls, and their teeth gleaming of the metal plating of the bases walls. The hissing grew louder as more aliens came in, now the corridor was full and they still kept moving, and the base alarms no longer sounded.

Daniel Baxter was young, short, yet one psychotic individual. He was in the battle from the beginning, had fought with the aliens on many occasion. Despite his young age, the nineteen year old could handle himself, amazing really, standing up he was the smallest of all the marines, almost by an entire foot. He looked up to them all, but personally felt that he was looking down, and with a carbine in his hands, he was an unstoppable alien killing machine, and that is why the others were afraid of him, he was irresponsible, reckless and more importantly a crazy mother-fucker. They were all happy to have him on their team.

Seb took his eyes of Baxter who had made the most obvious observation he has had ever heard, silly really. He looked over to Clegg whose eyes did not leave the monitor for a second, his glare was on the creatures that were taking over the base, and they had just broken down a door that a nuclear blast could not do, you could see the fear in the mans eyes, yet he smiled, looked up and tapped his ear piece.

"Seb, activate Sentinel marines." Then he looked back down to the screen as the camera view changed to the bottom of the long corridor, watching the oncoming aliens. "I want complete Xenomorph wipe out!" And again he grinned, Seb noticed the look on Cleggs' face, almost full of hatred, yet who would feel anything but hate for these creatures. Moving his hand to a small red button on the computer control, his finger pressed down and the button glowed, and the computer screen lit up. '_Sentinel Marines Activated._'

The sound of the monsters claws ripping into the shining metal walls brought a shiver to all that watched, and just as the aliens were about to enter the main corridor, two large black and yellow striped robots stepped out into the hallway, arms raised holding the largest turrets the marines could imagine, and they all knew then that a lot of aliens were about to get obliterated, and a rainstorm of acid would be spraying, happy that the Sentinels had anti-acid armour, but not unlimited rounds. And then the turrets began to bring down waves of aliens, the empty shells smashing all over the corridor, themselves flying into the luckless aliens that had made it past the deadly explosive rounds.

Shrieking as bullets blew them apart, and they still kept coming, pouring into the base, hundred of them, and they became faster, trying to get past the Sentinel marines. And they were succeeding, one of the marines was down, talons slashing at the body of the mechanical marine, the sound of its armour tearing, and the sounding alarm echoing into the aliens songs of pain. One last attack from the Sentinel as its defence system activated electrical shock shutdown, and at least a dozen hissing aliens burst into flames as the thousands of volts shot through them. Their domes cracking, their blood spraying from now splitting hard black skin.

And the mechanical marine was dead, taking out many of its programmed enemies. Its body now torn apart by monsters that had got past, making sure it was down, and they were behind the other Sentinel that had its guns still firing, still killing many of their kind, but right now, they knew that they had to move, and carried on into the main hall, looking for the humans they had been sent in to kill and retrieve for their hive, and the continuation of their demonic species.

"They are in, we don't have much longer." The General hesitated, angered by his words, stood up straight and looked around the room at the marines. "Get suited up, we go in ten minutes." Then he looked back at the second falling sentinel. Only one last line of defence against the aliens, and then they would face their nightmares, knowing that soon they would be fighting to live.

He knew that many of the marines, soldiers and the few civilians would soon die, but he was not going to give up, he may of lost the base, he would not lose his life, and would fight, to the death if he had to. And he looked at the final compound camera became a show of fuzz, the last thing he saw was a gleaming black monster, and he was sure it was grinning.

. . .


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine.

All was surprisingly quiet and from when the iron door slammed down hard, they had not run into any alien encounters and Jacques thought that something was wrong. Then again it was in the mans nature to think of the negative rather than the positive, that is what made him a good marine, he saw the ways around the worst case scenarios before even coming to the good side of things. So as he held his gun up waiting for the moment an alien would cross their path, he would think the worst, envisioning a multitude of xenomorph coming at them both.

It was dark, the large stone walls dripping a sticky dirty green gel, similar to the aliens body goo. But this was not alien, this was natural earth slime, nothing more, and it stunk as it slowly dripped down onto the knee high vomit that humanity called the sewer system. Sadly it was not the sewers that they were walking through, it was the entrance to what was meant to be humanities last hope for survival against an ongoing threat. That was not important now, neither was dredging through the thick water, cramped in a small tunnel headed towards a underground city of lost hope.

As they got deeper into the tunnels they found themselves almost regretting the choice of going down there, but knew it was the right thing to do in the predicament they were in. The dead weeds curling round the thick rusting pipes, choking them, killing them. From the sights they saw, the rotting tunnels had not been taken care of for some time, which meant that most likely the surveillance of the under city was not bothered with. How stupid could they of been, given the fact the aliens threat found itself growing in dark and dank corners of the most rotten places. Personally it made perfect sense, who would want to search through shit to find something worse than shit.

And to think, they were willing to go to the aliens hive planet and obtain the royal jelly for fire without a care of the terrain and hell that they would come into contact with. And with the pure bred xenomorphs also running around. They were to stupid to look in their own darkened corners, which was a mistake. It would not of been hard to send down a droid or even a xenobot, they had been known to be high successful in situations such as this, but financially, the costs of building and running one was another matter. We lost the world due to the greed of wealth.

The darkness that had engulfed them at that moment only an hour earlier brought some sense of relief, being away from the aliens on the outside, but now, he knew that there was a greater threat being were he was, yet he was not sure why they had not run into any alien activity. He would not drop the sight of his gun though, he would be ready for anything, then his thoughts went away from him, back many years. Sam did not notice him wander of into deep thought, her face only sniffing at the repulsive stench. She could smell the aliens sickening odour, she did not notice Jacques in his own little world, his past.

He sat on a broken of brick wall, listening to the surrounding, the moon was full and almost hidden by the newly thick alien atmosphere, bringing a sense of dread on his own home planet. The buildings around him were desolate, destroyed in one of many battles against the monsters, and a lot of the damage was caused by the aliens themselves, with the senseless acts of domination. In their defence, they were not human and could not appreciate our way of life, they just destroyed it.

Commander Declan Jacques was motionless, silent, taking in every sound that was not his troops. The breathing and heartbeats he could fade out of the sounds of the fallen city. He heard movement, scratching, a faint echo of hisses from the distance. And he was relieved at the fact that the sounds were moving away from them, yet he would still listen, deciding when to make his move towards the hospital, hoping that those inside were still safe. But in all honestly, he knew in his heart that they were dead, but he had to make sure, looking over to his second in command Corporal Andrew Rayne, he signalled his next action.

Movement of his left hand and circling his fore and middle fingers, _'Stay, take command post'. _Right hand, forefinger pointing sideways, left hand wave, head nod, _'I am taking a look in the first quadrant on the East side, going alone.' _

Closer he moved towards the building, looking at the entrance that seemed to be blocked. He would have to find another way in, so he headed towards the dark alley, in the direction of the ambulance bay, taking in each sound, weary of everything around him. And into the shadows he disappeared, Rayne just watched as his Commander and friend vanished from sight. He looked at the marines that he had fought with for the past four months, they had been through a lot. Being the first into the xenomorph battle, only a few of them survived, but they were a team. Something about Jacques command that brought a sense of hope.

Noticing that the door was torn of, thrown to the side of the building did not sit well in his stomach, his thoughts on what had happened, thinking over the scenarios of the hospitals saddened demise. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few seconds to think what had taken place, he had not seen any blood as of yet, but was sure that he would soon. And as he thought, the images burrowed deeply into his mind, and he began to sweat.

His thoughts began to re-enact what had taken place...

It had been quick, over in a few minutes. They had come in from the sewer entrance, in the furnace room close to the morgue. A few dozen monsters in the air vents that could hold their weight, they moved at great speed, silently and effortlessly. Around the hospital they found the larger groups of civilians, the sick were not really ideal for what they had been sent in for, so they would be killed. The creatures could stand human instinct, but their domed heads ached with each human scream, so they would be quick.

They attacked all at once, with one single thought from a higher source. They would smash down into the large rooms and their claws would rip through human flesh with ease. Sharp teeth stabbed into the sick, blood sprayed over the walls, covering the rooms in a new coating of paint, blood red, warm, sticky. Chunks of flesh flew over the many rooms of the hospital as the aliens moved quickly killing all the patients. A group of the monsters taking the living into the shadows of the hospital, dragging them into the underbelly of the building, awaiting their painful destinies.

From the ambulance bay the Queen entered, ripping the large roll-down door of its track and to the side of the building smashing into the wall, as she entered a torn piece of shining metal from the door stabbed into her crown of a head, causing her yellow blood to spray over the stone floor, melting the hard surface, smoking the stone, causing a hole to be dug into the ground. Her cry of pain was heard by all and a moment of silence and complete stillness was given for her accident.

She made her way to the morgue, through the wafer thin walls to the last staircase down, to the storage chambers, large enough for her to create a hive, she already had the surrogate parents on their way, so all she had to do is rest and wait for the eggs to be born from her growing sac. Only a few screams she could hear and all was silent, not even her own servants would hiss, she wanted peace, and that is what she was given...

Then the last of this thoughts of the events of the hospital sunk in. Horror danced around him as he came to realise what had taken place, they had come across a hive. Which only meant one thing. It struck his thoughts, the aliens were not running away, they were moving around. They were going to attack, it was a trap, they had laid a trap for them. He turned and moved quickly into the alleyway once more, and as he looked back to the ambulance bay, he could see movement, finally movement that he was knowing would come, but not what he was expecting.

They poured out, climbing over each other, at such a great speed. The hissing echoed around Jacques head as he raced through the darkness to the street, his carbine fell to his side as he now broke out into the moonlight, looking over to his troops. He knew that the aliens would be coming from their behind and the hospital, so he had to run up the street into the direction he first heard the monsters.

His feet carried him into the view of the marines waiting for his signal to enter the hospital, instead they witnessed their commander running for his life away from the broken down building away from where they were positioned, wondering why he was running . But as he moved further away, they could see him hesitate his motions, stopping for a moment to turn to his troops, his eyes showed it all, fear, and death.

"Run damn it!" The loud shouting of a man knowing that something was coming their way. "Hundreds of the fucking things, _RUN_!" And his feet began to lead him towards his troops, who looked upon him with a sudden fear, not knowing what the hell was going on. They looked at him and began to run into his direction, not caring what was coming at them, but they did have a clue of what, and nothing would keep them were they had been headed, who gave a shit about the civilians, they had their own problems.

And when Rayne turned to see what was happening he froze. From the darkness of the tunnel, hundreds of them, black shining bodies, glistening with the moon light on their slimy hard skin. Their claws pointing at the running troops, hissing, shrieking, crying out for their feast of flesh. Rayne just lifted his carbine and began to fire, the shrieks of the creatures grew louder, and the carbine suddenly jammed. His eyes just looked upon the wave of evil darkness coming towards him.

Jacques turned back to see Rayne disappear into the horde of aliens coming towards him, and even though he could no longer see his friend, he could horrifically hear him. His screams, slowly becoming screams of pain, gargling screams. Hearing the blood coming from his friend with each cry he made, and before he knew what he was doing, his carbine was also raised like Raynes had been moments earlier, only this time, it did not jam and a storm of bullets flew like lightening in a storm at the demons.

The other marines turned also, ran back to Jacques whose carbine was blowing the aliens apart. A man who did not care anymore, just wanting to see as many of those evil pieces of space shit burn into the once solid street. And the storm became more fierce as now several highly armed marines had their fingers holding down their own triggers, screaming, yelling as they blew the demons back into hell.

"Declan... Is everything okay?" Sam's voice slowly grew louder as the thoughts of aliens being obliterated faded into dead memories. Jacques looked at her smiling face, showing hidden concern for his sudden loss of present thought. "Is everything okay honey?" Her smile grew brighter in the dankness of the tunnel. Even though she was covered in the same dripping slime from the walls, she was still a beautiful sight to behold, and he returned the glowing smile in the darkness.

"I'm fine Samantha." He replied in a soft tone.

"Good, then lets keep going, there is some light ahead." And she was right, about two-hundred yards into the darkness of the tunnels they could see light, an artificial light of-course, but it was still something, and they quickly moved into its direction, still with their carbines raised just in case there was something that was a threat to them. Yet with the lack of alien activity, there must be some calmness in where they were headed, there weren't even any screaming, and the silence was not an eerie one, it was almost peaceful.

"Demetri, that fucking piece of shit." Guy knew now that Demetri had to of been a Spear, he had to be. It all made sense now, how else would they of been able to live for so long as close as they were. The Spears' had to of known of their presence, and they were waiting until they had got their little messiahs from the Queen. "Stephen, get away from the window, hide from the goddamn window!" But as Guy looked back he could see that it was too late, the black glistening monster stood with its extended second set of razor sharp teeth pressing up against the two-way window, steam causing slight condensation. Its gooey gelled slime dripping from its mouth, its almost silver teeth shining brightly.

Guy could almost hear it hissing at them, noticing one thing, it was looking directly at him.

It moved closer to the glass, its silver fangs dripping the warm metallic blood that was once from the living Francis John Woods. Sadly he was dead and his killer was already moving on to kill another. It was not particularly large for an alien, so it must be a new born, you could still make out dried blood on its body, its limps thinner than usual. Only an infant looked like that, but it did not make it any less deadly, as its head pointed at the glass. Hissing, its upper lips quivering as its jaws opened even wider.

It pounced...

... Guy pushed Stephen to the iron door behind him, as the creature pounced at the dirty mud and now blood stained window. But as Stephen hit the floor and rolled into the door, and as Guy looked on ready for the alien to smash through the glass, it was not there, only a yellow bubbling window was before them, steam and smoke coming from the hole in the glass, quickly growing as black chunks of xeno-flesh hit the floor in a stinking heap of dead alien.

He could not take his eyes away from the dead alien below him, he saw his death only moment earlier, his life flashing before him as the alien leapt at him, and now it was dead, he was alive and he was breathing really heavily, as he fell back onto his backside, watching at the hole that was once the window became bigger as now the wall was melting and the quickness was amazing, he could now see the lump of dead burning flesh. Then his eyes looked upwards, his head was coming back down to earth.

"Hi, I am Jacques and this is Samantha. Nice to meet you both." And Guys head just slumped back down as Stephens looked up at the two rough looking, marine equipped figure before him, and he smiled.

"...Err... Yeah... I'm Stephen... Hello..."

Guy stood up again and looked over to Jacques and Sam, not knowing what to really say at that time. "You cut it close didn't you?!" And he smiled. His smile was returned.

"Nah, I think we could of left it an extra few seconds, but we thought that we should just come in, shoot, say hello and that would be it." Sam giggled, softly, deeply under her hand. And Stephen laughed, looking over at them both, he walked over to the hole smelling the rancid stench of the once evil alien that was going to rip them apart if only. And he stepped over towards Jacques who turned his glance over to Guy who stepped over the remains of the alien.

"Guy Sanders. And thank you." Seriously now, he tried to show gratitude, but it really was not a emotion he was used to sharing with others, but right now he thought that the two that had saved him deserved something from him, and that was a big thing for him to give, and he also threw them a smile, which was not his usual-self. Something happened in those few seconds earlier that made him see something, hope for his life. "I think we better get going, they will know that this one is dead."

"Its a hive isn't it?" Jacques asked, knowing that feeling burning in his stomach, he was right in the middle of a hive and he just knew it, from the memories of the hospital coming back to him.

"Yes!" A dirty high pitched voice from behind them all came. "And you're the next batch for the Messiah!"


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten.

Lexa Warren, twenty-two years old and not really the most attractive of young woman. Her eyes always seemed to be looking down, always slanted. With a nervous twitch her head would shake violently to the right every few minutes making her dirty blonde hair look like it had been tossed into the eye of the tornado. Yellow teeth and an unattractive stench of her breath would bring a green tear to anyone standing close bye or those who would be in a conversation with the woman. Lexa from what anyone knew about her was a very intense woman, the scars on her face showed her to be rather hands-on and would go into any situation without really knowing what was involved. Sadly this made her morbid and always searching for her peers.

When she had joined the marine-core three years earlier she had not realised what it would involve, and after many assaults upon alien hives she would soon lose faith in what she was fighting for, earth was no longer her home, everything and everyone she knew was gone, until one day a voice would soothe her nightmares, and the realisation of her life would become the end of her search for her so-called peer.

Each night her eyes would close and her dreams would fade into her mind. She would be running down the dark alleyways of her once home city Manhattan, knowing that something was following her. The shadows around her would dance as the wind howled, hissing would follow her wherever she would run. Each turn would lead her deeper into the maze of back streets and sewer like alleys, not even seeing a single rat in the stench of thick fog that covered her view. Her cold breathe would crystallise as she gasped for one last breathe of dirty air. It was close.

She ran as fast as her young aching feet would carry her, from shadow to shadow she would try and find sanctuary from her demons. The hissing now became a quiet echo around her head, it was the sound of clanking armour that now would bounce around the alleys almost deafening her, crying sounds throughout her world as the footsteps became louder in her ears. Screams of pain would try and shriek over the sounds of the marines coming her way, yet as she heard their coms activate and the cries down their ear pieces, that is when the calm sound entered her dreams. No longer could she hear the clanking metal of the marines armour, she was now at peace with the sound of the hissing monsters ripping their claws into the blood gargling humans.

Following the sounds of human death she walked around the corner, almost expecting what she was about to see, only one of the demons was now standing, holding his carbine at the shadowy figure that would soothe her nightmares. The marine raised his carbine ready to fire but before he could aim the creature was already almost dancing around the already dead marine, blood gushing, spraying over the dirty, graffiti covered alley walls. Her eyes could not believe what she was witnessing, and in her heart she was not afraid of what she was watching, even as the black creature moved like wind close to her, its top lips quivering as its breathe crystallised over her sweat covered face. Smiling in return to the hissing, the alien that she was looking upon reached out its blood covered arms, and she raised her own. Her saviour.

The warm embrace ended as her eyes opened, she was waking from her soothing nightmares. He last image of the dark alien relaxing her, making her wish that she could still be in her dreams holding her true calling, sadly she was awake and the alarms were sounding, she had to get ready for her daily tasks, her job as the marine she grew up to become, and again she would think back to her dream, she knew her destiny and it was not armour-clad with a carbine, it was with her own kind, her alien brethren.

. . .

"Wake up and get moving Warren, this is not a Sunday sleep-in, get your fat ass to the command deck pronto!" The squealing sounds of Commander Fischer once again calling loudly down the com for his favourite slave. She had no choice but to do as he commanded, and each time she heard his voice she was almost repulsed by the image of his face that would creep into her thoughts, and as she gagged she buttoned up her top pant button, and with a brown hair-tie she was ready to rush to her cringing pathetic high-ranking officer. To the door switch she headed, not looking were she was going and before she knew it, her face was hitting the floor.

"Warren! Get here now you bitch...!" The voice still causing a lot of sheering pain in her head, and now with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth all she could do was sit up, slanted against the wall. "Warren, this will be the last time I tell you to get here."

"I am on my way you fat fucking piece of horse shit!" And there was no reply, she laughed to herself knowing that everyone in the command room would of heard her. Wondering to herself what her punishment would be, in all honestly she did not care as she stood up licking the last drip of blood from her finger and corner of her mouth. Pressing the blue button on her door she walked through and headed towards the elevator. She would take her time and get herself a warm cup of mocha, or as the machine would give her, 'a cup of brown crap'.

No one had ever spoken to Commander Fischer with such disrespect in his entire life, so it was only natural that he would be more than angered by her words, but right now he would have to let it pass, he had more important matters to discuss with Lexa. It seemed that someone had been messing with the central control and he knew that Lexa could find out who it was. For some unbeknown reason everyone seemed to like Lexa, but he could not see why, he knew that she was two-faced trouble maker, but everyone thought him to be the one that would make an issue of something less trivial to the fact that she was friendly to everyone but him.

With his face burning red the androids sitting at the com-units, he was glad that they did not understand the reckless use of humour that Lexa was portraying with the lack of taste. It was the hidden smirks of the humans positioned at the lab desks that would cause him to try and keep his head from lowering in shame, and he was fighting the urge to hide really well, he was not really the strongest of men, but he made up for it in his ability to act like someone else when the time was needed. Sometimes he would wish that the people of the Sector Command would see him as the person he truly was, not the person he had to pretend to be, his late wife was the only one who would see him as the warm hearted soul.

"Back to work, the commotion is over. One sound of a chuckle and you will be dismissed to the brig just like Corporal Warren will be headed unless I believe otherwise. Do you understand that?" No one would reply, they kept their eyes on their work and carried on with it trying to forget the last few minutes that had been playing in their minds. At the moment they knew that Lexa would be in some kind of trouble. "Good."

He headed towards his office, not looking at the technicians as he passed them, wondering to himself when they would be finished with the main computer terminal, he wanted it to be secured as soon as humanly possible, knowing that if something was to cease functioning there would be major problems in the base. The thoughts of what could happen would delve into his thoughts for hours, remembering the stories of what happened to the prior station command unit that lost its main central computer system. The massacre would be remembered for many years after the event, so much life was lost and why, because of a stupid fuse blowing.

. . .

It had been a typical day on the base, no problems had occurred in the past few days and the aliens attacks had been in few numbers, in fact there had not been an attack in days, coming up to almost two weeks. Even the weathered had calmed, the atmosphere since the aliens had arrived grew a new scent, not of oxygen or smog, but of acidic aroma. Many had grown accustomed to its bland fragrance, but on the whole humanity did not wish to smell such a rancid egg-like smell.

Smithy did not really know what to do with himself, the sun was shining down and his sweaty shirt had been thrown over the rail half-an-hour earlier. The passing grey clouds did not bother him or stop him from sunbathing, and the com unit in his ear had not sounded for nearly an hour. Nothing could be better in the world, especially now that they had defeated the alien threat and the world had gone back to its normal way of living, only the lasting effects of the aliens seemed to be in memory, the clouds and stink of the air.

Yet his mind would continue to wander off, taking him away from his duties. When he would close his eyes and allow the warm beams of sunlight hit his body, he knew he would not burn, with the clouds now and again covering the sun from view. He did not notice the alarm flashing behind him it had seemed to be on silent running. So he did not notice the movement just in view upon the mountainous horizon, more interested in relaxing. Admitting to himself that it was getting pretty hot, but glad that he was not pulling guard duty in the lower levels of the base, it went from boiling to freezing from time to time and the vents were always picky.

Ignoring everything that was happening around him he placed his headphones on and cranked the volume to full power and pounded his head with the heaviest of hard-rock that any person could humanly stand, and he again relaxed in the heat with his tunes and a smile on his face. Not only was he not watching the dark shadows moving towards him, the perimeter alarm had somehow been deactivated and was not sounding loudly around him, he could only hear the music and his own singing.

Before he could act he sensed some movement around him, and as he opened his eyes he could see it, on the thick blast-glass above him, but before he could act the black creature had already cracked the glass enough to fits its claws into the watch towers booth. Smithy could not believe his luck as the talons could not reach him, then he reached for the base alarm switch to warn everyone of the aliens that had approached the base, sadly he did not notice as the aliens arm sliced itself upon the glass, and only then did he feel the burning sunlight hitting his body.

His screams could not be heard by anyone, he had not activated the com unit in time to turn on the alarm, as he looked upon his chest he could feel it burning through him from behind as his body arched over, the last thing he saw was the dark shadow of the creature and the hole that was once his chest. And as the song in his ear echoed around the booth ended, it was over.

Aliens were quick in their attack, the base really had no chance especially with the sudden surprise of the aliens crashing through the ceiling grates. From day one of the aliens coming to Earth, every single marine knew one thing that would keep him alive even for a few moments, 'always have your carbine ready to fire', but on this occasion before they could even turn off the safety they were all dead. Normally the aliens would come in and save most of the humans for hosts, sadly not this time, it was a massacre, only warm blood would be left in the marines wake. No hosts were needed, only food.

. . .

According to the command log that was found on the base, there had been no survivors, it was just an alien attack upon a inhabited colonial marine base, the main command bunker for the army, and Earth's only protection at the time. The log was badly encrypted, and when the program was finally broken, they had found that there was one survivor, a young woman, who had only just joined the unit.

"Come in." Lexa Warren walked into the Commanders office with a heavy grin on her face. "I see that it does not bother you that you disobeyed a direct order yesterday evening!" Lexa's smile faded into an emotionless expression. Fischer had hit her with that one, knowing that she had not been on her post when she should have been, that was a brig offence, but even Lexa knew that the Commander would not do anything about it. Looking at the commander her disrespect was erased as she threw him a friendly smile and salute.

"I do apologise Commander. After your briefing yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to go straight to the problem area." Still looking at Fischer, knowing that she could feed him any shit, it was all good enough to get her of his bad side, especially with him believing that there was a traitor somewhere on the base. Watching as he blinked heavily she knew that Fischer had no clue that it was actually her that was causing so much sabotage on the base, stupid bastard. "I know a young woman that has been talking about certain sectors of the base, I believed leaving my post and confronting her would get me some trust, disobeying the Commander would gain me strong trust with almost any man and woman on the base."

She was right the Commander thought, but he did not want anyone to know that the senior officers were onto the traitors trail. "I understand Warren, but still, you should of run it through me first. Right now I have the security terminal up from my computer, I am the only one who can run the certain programs to keep this base safe from any xenomorph threat. If anyone gets the hold of my security clearance, the entire base and everyone in it will be at risk." He looked up towards Lexa who did not seem to be paying attention. "And this mornings disrespectful attack upon me disturbs me greatly Corporal."

"Again I can only apologise Sir. You should not of given me the knowledge of your security clearance Sir. If anyone was to try and get any information out of me, I do not believe I could fight any chemical attack on my body or mind. So why did you tell me Sir?" Maybe right now was her time to act as she looked upon the Commander relaxing, then lifting his head and eyes into her direction.

"Honestly Warren, I may not really have complete trust in you, but I can see that you would not want any harm to happen to his base. I have read your file and your past involvement with the xenomorph threat is somewhat promising, that is why I have enough trust to share with you my security plans for the station." He smiled at Lexa, and even though she seemed two-faced, she was on his side. "Now go to your command and I will see you back here at 1500hrs." He nodded for Lexa to leave and with her salute and smile she turned and walked out of the office.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven.

1500HRS - Corporal Lexa Warren walked into the Commanders office with a salute ready. Noticing that the Commander was focusing his thought completely on his comp screen, delving deeply into the bases security. His train of thought could sense that someone had entered his office and he knew that it would have to be Lexa, so taking his eyes of the screen he looked up to see the young Corporal Saluting with her left hand and holding a silenced pistol in her right. Before he could ask her what she was doing the bullet had already hit the right of his chest knocking him back of his chair, whacking his head hard on the pine window ledge behind him. All went black.

"Fischer, wake up." The voice seemed almost soothing to his pounding head and chest, he could feel his own blood pouring from him, covering his grey shirt. Noticing that he was now in the chair that was once facing his chair on the other side of his desk, gagged and bound tightly with wire that cut into his wrists, not being able to move or talk, he could now make out the figure in-front of him. "You are finally awake.. About time." Lexa was smiling at him swirling on the chair behind his desk. He could see that Lexa had faced the screen so they could both see it, she was typing quickly as she spoke to him. He shuck his head trying to talk, only mumbles came out.

Lexa stood up and walked over to the Commander, pulling the gag from around his head. "What the fuck are you doing Warren?" Before he could shout for help she struck him hard across the face with the butt of her pistol, and laughed as blood sprayed from the Commanders nose.

"Fischer Fischer Fischer..! You should not of trust me. You want to know what I was doing last night away from my post? I was creating a computer program that would boot you security code from the system and enable a new hacking program so that I could access you security unit." Everything she was telling him was stabbing him hard in his chest, the pain from the bullet wound was no longer causing him any pain, it was his heart gasping for blood.

"I don't understand Warren.. What are you going to do?" He fought to speak, he could barely keep his eyes open, only to see her smile and point to the screen.

"Look at the screen Fischer, it shows all the blast doors in the base." She reached over for the small mouse and rolled the arrow over a small flashing box with two words '_Open_' and '_Close_'. The flashing was coming from the '_Close_' box, which indicated that the doors were securely sealed. "Now just watch this." The arrow moved to the '_Open_' box and with one click it began to flash. "Goodbye Sir, enjoy the show..!" And Lexa stood up and walked towards the Commanders secret escape hatch. "I bet you did not know I knew this was here." Pulling the handle she opened the hatch and disappeared from view, Fischer shot his eyes back at the screen only to see his nightmares come true.

Light a heavy wind they came in, the black wave of evil entered the base. He could almost hear them hissing, the horde of aliens. Corporal Lexa Warren had played him, waiting for the right time to strike, now he knew why she had been the only survivor in the log he read in her file, she was the one who let them in, "_Fucking Bitch_", the last words he spoke before the pain in his chest stopped and his heart no longer beat.


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve.

"Darling, I do not believe that you have thought this through.." Jacques was unable to finish what he was saying as he felt the wrong side of the guns butt on the back of his head. It was then that they realized that maybe they were in some trouble, aliens were one thing, they killed because it was their way of life, but the humans that gave up on humanity and were telepathically raped by the aliens were just pathetic. Who with a sane mind would ever believe that the aliens were their messiahs, not the smartest of humans.

Her complexion was very thinly shown, someone who had been in the shadows feeding on soya-paks for what would seem to be a long time. Then again, nearly everyone stuck in the undercity would be eating the crap-in-paks food without a choice, because it was all that was there to eat and what was left in the stores when everywhere was abandoned. Noticing her faint steps towards Jacques, Sam leapt forward at the woman knocking into her hard, both falling to the floor, in a struggle for the gun in both hands.

One single shot went off and both woman stopped struggling and remained motionless as they both looked upon the direction of which the bullet had travelled. Everyone was looking towards the boy on his knees, holding his stomach with blood covered hands. His eyes looking at his wound bewildered at what had just happened, and before he could fall back onto the floor, Guy was already holding him in his arms, one of his hands pressing down on the hole in his friends stomach yet glaring with hatred at the woman being now held down by Jacques.

Stephen was not really sure why he was holding his stomach, only that one moment he was watching two women fighting on the floor and the next thing, _Bang_! And he was falling back, now covered in his own blood. It was the shock that was affecting him, those were the words he could hear from a strangers voice, a woman's voice. Was it the woman who pointed the gun, that he was not sure about. Only now he could make out Guys face looking at him from above

"Don't worry kid, you'll be fine" His eyes now pointing at the woman standing with her arms tight behind her back, pinned by Jacques whose deep look at her was also piercing, even from behind. His hands now sticky with blood, not wanting to remember what that feeling felt like, taking him back to when he was a soldier, a memory he wished not to have, but life seemed to always laugh at him, it never seemed to be his own blood, always a friend. "What is you damn problem lady?"

Lexa looked at him, her eyes lowering downwards not wanting to look at him, knowing his eyes would stab into her. She did not wish to feel guilt, sickening human trait. "They will come for you, you cannot run from the messiahs." Something was different now as she spoke these words, the screaming in her head was calming down, the lack of feeling towards humanity in her was yelling at her to be strong, something she had not felt in many years. Before she could continue Guy was already shouting at her.

"How many people have to be killed by the aliens for you people to see they are nothing but big insects from space? Damn you are all pathetic weak-minded fucks!" Each word hitting Lexa hard, she did not know what to think, something was letting her go in her own mind, something that was lying to her, and as her eyes opened all went black as the butt of her own gun hit her hard above her nose.

"There was no need for that Sam!" Everyone looked over to see Sam holding the gun with an angered look upon her face.

"That bitch shot Stephen..." Jacques was looking at the young woman before him, the woman he was spending his life with and would die for, yet he was willing to trust his instincts on this one choice he was making, hoping that it would not rip a hole in his relationship with Sam, but he thought it was worth it, no other choices.

"It doesn't matter right now, we gotta find somewhere to hide, the aliens will be coming soon, especially with one of their own dead and a human bleeding. They seem to just know when to arrive unannounced." Looking over to Guy lifting Stephen up ready to carry them, Jacques moved over to woman on the floor momentarily unconscious. He kicked her side, hard enough to wake her from her sudden slumber. "We need to find somewhere safe to help the kid. Where can we go?" Sam rushed over to Jacques to protest, but was interrupted by the Spear.

"The _Sanctuary _at the far end of the labs. They won't find anyone in there, its airtight and barricaded with heavy tech weaponry. Nothing can get in..."

"Good girl. What is your name?" Trying to avoid Sams dagger looks at him he tried to hurry the pleasantries.

"Warren, Lexa Warren." Jacques took Lexa's gun from Sam who did not seem happy about it, wondering what the hell he could be doing, was the man insane, one too many knocks to the head. With a concerned look of lingering trust he handed over the gun back to Lexa. "I do not understand, why are you giving me my gun back?" Rather confused by the mans actions she could do nothing but wonder, as did the others.

Stepping over to Guy and Stephen, he smiled down at the boy, trying to show a positive moment of hope to the young man. Then looking up at Guy who had a very similar look to Sams, also wondering why Jacques had handed the gun back to the seemingly psychotic Spear, but something told him that it would be okay. "Because Lexa, these creatures kill everyone, and I do not leave anyone to die like the poor souls used to bring these monsters into the world, even if it means trusting you to come along with us. But believe me, if you do anything that I think deserves a bullet in your head, I will not think twice."

Guy smiled at what Jacques had just told Lexa, as did Sam. Yet Sam did not truly approve with Jacques decision, a Spear is better of dead and why Jacques was keeping her alive she did not understand, Spears did not have souls.

The five of them headed down the Northern corridor into the direction Lexa had pointed, hoping they could trust her, but right now they had no other choice. Lexa was the only one who new the tunnels and that is why she was important, the fact she carried a gun and could turn on them really meant nothing to Jacques right now. All he knew was that they had to get the hell out of _Hell_, before the monsters came back, and time was running out, but before his thoughts went back to the running, he could not help but think that maybe this was a bad idea, the _Sanctuary_, nothing could keep these monsters out.

"Come on Seb, we gotta get the hell out of here?" Looking over to see him, his eyes locked to the view-cam, watching as the sentinels were torn apart, the last movements they made before deactivating. It was not the fact that the sentinels had been taken down so quickly, it was the wave of darkness coming closer towards them. These demons would keep coming until they found them, and kill, _'oh god' _or worse, take them to the hive and nesting chamber. Horrors of what was bouncing of the sides of Sebs head when he thought about an alien ripping through his chest. "_Seb_!"

Taking his eyes of the screen he looked at the group of marines that were left in the security room, they all seemed a little preoccupied with the events that had just taken place, wondering how the hell the sentinels could be taken down so easily. The two behemoths were designed to withstand the heaviest of xenomorph attacks, but what just happened was ridiculous, these things just ran through them, not caring how many of their kind got obliterated, as long as they got to where they wanted to get to, nothing else matters. All the aliens were doing on this attack was killing, taking hosts was never met with such an attack, this was purely a massacre, probably some telepathic attack sent from the queen. _Bitch_.

His mind did not wish to think of the monsters that were coming for them, the hatred he felt to a species almost as much as his hatred for humanity. Life was such a waste when these monsters came to this land, then again how could he just want to give up when the world had fought for so long to keep itself from being destroyed. Monsters tormented all that he knew, all that everyone had known, having to move amongst the stars, and leave the world that had been humanities for just a heartbeat of human life.

"Seb, come on man, we gotta get going." Words would not be heard, but a faint mutter at the back of his head. Their screams, echoing through everyone who was cursed to be listening to them, they were too close for comfort and as he shuck his head, getting the monsters fowl gunk dripping grin out of his mind, he noticed an active Securicam in the 'East Sector Two', his head was spinning but he knew that it meant something was down there, and the sensors were used to pick up human life, not xenomorphic.

"Eastern Sector, someone's in _ES2_, we cannot leave them here to die!" What did he just say, were those words actually leaving him mouth, emotion for another human being, something that was thought to of been lost when the monsters came to his world, now was not the time to give in, he had something now to keep his mind sane, for the time being anyway. "Clegg, we can go by the area via the _Quadrant C4Q, Hope Avenue on 25th Street _and carry on with our direction straight after, we are headed into that direction anyway, no harm in checking out the beacon." Looking over to the man in command, but someone maybe he could call friend.

"No fucking way, I am not going into the Hive, its suicide, especially for ghost signals. No chance, no fucking way!" The squeaking voice of Baxter as his hard-ass attitude suddenly disappeared when the notion of getting amongst the creatures was in question. He was not a coward, he was a psychotic crazy marine, but he still saw sense in not rushing into any stupid situations, especially one concerning the Hive. "If we just go in there guns pointed high screaming we will be killed, these damn _things_ can sense motion, heat, sound to a hyper level. They do not have eyes but a highly enhanced telepathic frontal lobe, the big dome is like a giant sonar, nothing can get in there without them knowing. I would rather just get to the lifeboat."

Looking at Seb, his eyes widened as he spoke, amazed at the sheer 'balls' of wanting to go into the main hive area to see if the Sensors had actually picked up human life, nothing had been known to be down there apart from the Eastern Lab, and he knew that it was destroyed a month prior. "Baxter, that is not for you to decide, we cannot just give up on saving human lives, what if they need our help? Its final, Seb, you got it, we will head into that direction, check it out, but firstly, we need a plan of getting out of the station, we are covered and activity is too crazy around the exit point to the tunnels. We have to find another way out, any plans?"

No one knew what to say, Baxter wished that they would have a damn good plan if they were going to walk to their deaths, and unfortunately they were all drawing a blank, with no ideas. Corporal Carter looked over to Clegg with a smile. "Sir, I gotta plan."

Guy would not take his eyes of her, making sure she would not have even the smallest of micro time to act, she seemed human, her scan verified it, but she could have cyber-implants, it was the in thing a few years back, around the time the aliens came. His eyes glared at her, watching her, frowning with Stephen moaning in the sanctuary's main medical facility, it housed the latest in medical equipment, amazing really. Damn Spears could get hold of anything they wanted, as long as it could help them destroy humanity.

"You don't have to watch me you know Corporal Sanders, I will not flee, and you already gave me back my gun, you will have to trust me." Was she actually saying this to him, the nerve of the evil woman, the damage she had caused had already doubled as to how big a problem it actually was, they could not find any morphine and Stephen was crying out, getting louder. "And I would really recommend shutting him up, the scanner is picking up motion in the corridor just south of these passages."

Raising his gun he aimed it at the woman, who was not really paying that much attention. "He is only in pain because of you, I failed him, I failed them all." Guy felt a sudden loss, his gut was tightening, the pain was building up and the taste of vomit was burning the back of his throat. "I have to go, keep working on helping him, I will deal with the screaming." Moving into the next room Guy could see Stephen, agonizingly rolling around the bed, strapped down for his own safety,

"Help me please Guy, it hurts, it really hurts."

"Don't worry buddy, Jacques will be back soon with the morphine, everything will be okay. Just keep fighting." How could he tell the poor boy that his stomach was barely even a stomach, that the blood was blackened, more importantly, how should he tell the boy that there is nothing they can do. "Just relax..."


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen.**

The lights that were not broken flickered, shooting weak glowing beams of light into the small corridor. Bringing an extra sense of dread as they ran into the direction of the Sanctuary-room that Lexa was guiding them to, but they were still unsure that they could trust her, hoping for the last remnants of humanity in the woman who had caused so much pain the the world. If it was not for the screeching sound of the monsters talons ripping through the metallic corridors they would take a moment rest, question the time it was taking to get to the safety of a traitors room, but they had to keep going, a second still meant a step closer to their death.

Guy held Stephen as they all ran through the dark corridors, feeling the boys sticky warm blood seep through his shirt onto his skin. Stephen was beginning to get cold, he was falling in and out of consciousness and time was fading away. Guy only hoped that they would make it to the sanctuary soon, because Stephen would not last much longer, he was amazed at the strength that was keeping the boy alive. Time was against them and with the xeno's following, that made the run to the corridors seem longer than it actually was.

As they all followed the corridor with Lexa, Sam could not take her mind of what had taken place, thinking that it would be better if she put a bullet in the womans head and not think twice. She had to trust Jacques, he knew what he was doing, so he was not shoot Lexa, even if she deserved to die. Poor Stephen, she had known him for only moments, but they had both been through the same experience, damn aliens. Sam could not wait for the day all of the aliens species was wiped from the galaxy. Taking her glance away from Lexa, she kept her eyes forward, the sounds behind her creeping into her head.

Lexa could not get the nightmarish thoughts out of her head, they had been there for so long, making her decisions, controlling her thoughts. As the flickering lights flashed, her thoughts went back to each decision she had made in the past that had caused to much sorrow and pain. When she let the compound go down, leaving Fischer to his peril. Her heart thumped against her chest, she did not deserve to live. Yet right now she was needed, for the first time in a long time, as she guided the group to momentary safety.

"It's not far from here, the next right and straight." They made it closer to the last corner, not far to go. Sam stopped and looked back to see the flickering lights, something was moving towards them, closer, the shiny slick heads moved quickly into their direction. "Don't stop now girl!" as Lexa grabbed hold of Sams arm and pulled her around the bend towards the others. Jacques raised his carbine as the women passed by only a few yards from the final turn, as a black shadow followed them, he pulled the trigger and the shadows glowed with explosive rounds as the sounds of demons echoed and burning stink of their blood burned through the dirt stained metal walls.

No one wanted to look back as Jacques made his stand against wall of darkness moving towards them. After only seconds Jacques had begun to run as fast as he could, he was yelling something at the others, but they could not make it out over the shrieks of crying demons. Running past the others at an amazing speed, they suddenly heard what he had been yelling.

"_Motion Grenade_!"

Within a second of the aliens passing over the motion grenade it detonated. With great force the air was sucked from the corridor and the grenades compressor activated as the motion sensor found its mark. The explosion erupted in a ball of fire and anything in its path would be dust left behind in the flames wake, it engulfed the humans threat, but with great speed and power neared the group as they moved closer towards the door of the sanctuary.

Feeling the force of the explosions shockwave hit them caused al of theml to be thrown into the direction they were all headed, Guy held onto Stephen as he was thrown into the wall and then onto the floor. Sam fell into Lexa pretty hard causing them to both hit the ground with force enough to knock the breathe out of them. Jacques stayed on his feet but as he saw everyone else hit the floor he stopped and quickly moved over to Sam to help her up. Without caring about the pain they felt, the initial shockwave had hit them and they knew that the blast itself would be right on top of them.

They all looked back in horror as the wall of fire jumped down the corridor towards them, already feeling the sudden heat, when suddenly it disappeared, the heat became nothing more than a acidic yellow smoke. Most of the corridor had collapsed, leaving only a small opening, but big enough for the aliens to get through.

Confused by what had happened they all stood before the large iron door that was their safety. Jacques looked at everyone, smiling with the biggest grin, as if his world was at peace and all was well. Guy knew exactly what had happened, and smiled with Jacques, turning to everyone to explain. "Air vacuum. The compression safety switch set an explosion radius, we got to the safety point." His smile went away and he was again serious as he looked towards the door they needed to get through. "We do not have much time, there will be more coming!"

Everyone was looking at Carter as he told everyone his plan, and with each crazy word he spoke, the plan made more sense, maybe it could actually work. Seb looked over at the civilians who had made it to the security room and had watched the slaughter of the Sentinals, and he could still see the horror on their faces. So many had died and they still feared for themselves, but that was expected, fear grew within them and rightly so, their nightmares were happening.

One of the civilians, a young woman stood up with tears still dripping from her chin. She was only petite in build but seemed too beautiful to be a civilian on this base. Her soft brunette hair passed her shoulders and complimented her pale rose skin. Even with the saddened face she remained an angel. Seb caught her name earlier when Aj was trying to make a pass at her, and in this situation it was not adviced. He still moaned holding his groan area from where she had grabbed him, hard. Her name was Alice.

"You are all out of your mind, I am not going out there..." before she could say anything else Clegg stepped forward and looked down at her, his eyes beamed down at Alice, her back against the wall as he glared. He then looked around the small security room at everyone, his eyes full of anger, yet strength.

"We are all going to die, if we stay here we will die in a matter of hours." Everyone looked at him, fear hit them once more, harder this time, Clegg was right and they wished otherwise. They had seen how fast the monsters had gotten into the base, and it would only be a matter of time until they got into the security room, aliens were good at getting to their prey. "Carter has the only plan and I for one think that it will work. And to be completely honest, if this is my time to die, it will not be in this little room. I am not a small animal curling up in a ball."

Alice took a step forward, as did Tommy Callum. He was a big man, stood taller than the marines, and from his appearance it looked like he was pumping his body with _Fire_ and hitting the weights. His large biceps where to make up for his lacking brain size, all muscle it seemed, and at this moment in time he had a fiery temper that equalled his size. "I will not go out there to die, I am staying here. You can do whatever you want, but my ass is staying here, you hear me little man!" Alice grinned showing her pearly white teeth as Muscles spoke down to the Captain, not caring much for anyone other than himself and his bit of ass that seemed almost attached to his hip. Shame really, she was rather attractive.

Before Clegg could shout at the heap of muscle that was throwing attitude at him, the giant of a man was lifted into the air, a high pitched scream followed, feminine, silenced only by the sudden crunch of flesh and spray of blood. Baxter and Aj had already raised their carbines into the air and were firing at the hole where the legs were dangling and blood was spraying. They could here the shrieking cry of the alien as the rounds hit it and suddenly there was no movement only the legs of the dead heap of muscle that was once Tommy.

It took only moments to fix the hole in the vent, but trying to work around the acid remains of the dead alien was hard and Baxter came away from it with a nasty burn to his forearm that nearly cracked the bone. They had to hurry, soon the rest of the monsters would be there, they had to get the plan into action. Seb was trying to fix up the wound on Baxters arm when a scream from one of the civilians echoed in the small room.

"Aggh, Alice...!" cried the last of the women of the surviving civilians. Clegg hurried over, as did Seb to see what was wrong and as they looked down at Alice who seemed hunched over unconscious, they realised now why she had remained quiet for so long. Her face seemed to be no more, acid had eaten away at her once beautiful face, only the back of her skull remained, and that was slowly disappearing. The woman who was hysterical passed out, and Clegg motioned for Corporal Selena Mai to go aid her, against her wishes of-course.

Looking again at everyone, Clegg stood up, shoulders back, chest out, head up high. "We have no time, we move in twenty minutes..!"

Lexa looked at the door before her, then moved to the side panel and hit it hard. A sudden spark of electricity shot out and a small nine inch screen spun around and flashed on, showing numbers and letters. Everyone glanced over to Lexa, waiting for her to type in the code to open the door. As she moved her fingers towards the screen to punch in the numbers, something did not feel right, but it passed by and she started with the first symbol. The screen flashed as she typed in the fifth symbol.

'_Access Denied_'

An echoing screech hit them hard, almost deafening, from behind them in the still yellow smokey air. They were coming.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen.**

Clegg frowned ever-so slightly, hoping that the plan would work in their favor, but with everything that had happened that day, he was feeling negative thoughts about what they were all about to do. Looking down a the complex operating system, he knew what he had to do, sadly there was only one flaw to the plan, someone had to stay behind to disengage the base door controls and deactivate all the system failure mechanisms. Xeno's were not the smartest of creatures, and a short circuit with their blood on the controls would activate the system reactivation, opening all the doors and leading the monsters to the escapees. So someone had to stay and hope they could keep the aliens from moving anywhere other than the directions he wanted them to go.

Once everyone were clear from the base, Clegg would activate the base self-destruct, maybe there would be enough time for him to get the hell out of there before it went boom, but that was just the slightest of chance that it would work out best for him. Everyones face showed everyone single emotion they were feelings. The remaining civilians filled with dread, almost expecting everything to wrong, and Clegg could see their point of view, the base was meant to be safe from Xenomorph attacks, but they had gotten in quicker than he could ever believe they would.

Looking over to the marines he could see the strength in their souls, eventhough at first they seemed sceptical about Carters plan, they knew it was their only chance to live and to give one back to the bugs, blow some of them up, get even. Sadly he could also see the fear in their eyes also, the sense of despair, but they hid it well, fixing their carbines and weaponary. They all wore acid protective armour, so they would have to worry about that, but blood did not bother them, it was the teeth and talons.

Everyone was seemingly at peace, knowing their possible grusome fates, but they would fight for their lives, even the civilians held carbines and suited up in armour, they would not be taken that easily, and would put a bullet in their own heads rather than be hosts to the monsters. The clicking sound of guns being loaded gave a little hope as the sounds of screetching monsters ripped closer towards them. Clegg stood up and waved for everyone to huddle together before he would flick the switch.

"I want to tell you how brave you all are before you go. What you are about to do is something many people would cower away from, but the fight you are all giving makes me proud to make this sacrifice or you, and I hope that maybe I might see you all soon, living and away from these demons." Carter and the other marines saluted the Captain, knowing that they would probably not see him again. They had thought he was not brave when they had first been put in his order, but he was, the bravest man to make a sacrifice to save them. And they would not forget his strong heart. "Godspeed, all of you Godspeed."

Everyone moved towards the back to a small grey door, that was hidden from view as it looked just like the wall of lights and computer screens. Carter gave it a solid whack and with an ache sounding huff the door slid open, lit with low red glowing lights. "Everyone, come on, get it, we need to hurry.. Aj, take front and I will take rear." Carter took command for the time being and everyone seemed to listen as they all headed into the small space.

Baxter stepped towards the opening, but hesitated and turned towards his Captain. "Its been a pleasure and an honor Captain." Baxter seemed almost lost for words, not knowing what to say. Clegg smiled as the young marine stepped into the red light and disappeared down the corridor.

"Captain, I am staying with you." Seb looked at Clegg, nothing was going to change his mind but hoped that Clegg would agree, but even if he did not, he would stay. Clegg looked at Seb, smiled and then looked over to Carter who would yet to leave and follow the others. Carter moved behind Seb and went to grab his arm to pull him through the hidden door. "No, I am staying. I am not leaving you here alone, I might be able to help if something goes wrong, or if you need help getting out of here. Please let me stay and help Sir..." Carter had no other choice and grabbed tight hold of Seb's arm and pulled him into the red light.

"Frank, see you soon my friend." As the door shut and Clegg was alone, with only the coloured lights for company and monsters on the computer screens. His head sunk slightly as it finally hit him, he was going to die.

Raising his head once more he looked at the switches and punched in the activation code of all the base doors, not taking his eyes of the screen. He pressed the code to control the doors and the base map came up on the screen, indicating the doors that were open and closed. Watching to see the aliens reactions, but nothing seemed to be happening yet, all the aliens stood still, watching as the doors slid open. He would hear their hissing, not knowing what was happening.

"Come on you bastards!"

It was working, the aliens moved into the direction of the doors that opened before them. After they had moved so far down the dark corridors, Clegg shut the doors behind them, smiling at their stupidity. Yet something kept hitting him as he watched the plan actually work. Soon it would be over, but he hoped that it would be by his hand. In less than five minutes he would activate the self-destruct, not before hearing from Carter as they got clear from the base.

Something was wrong, the door should be open. Eyes were staying at her, as if she had committed the worst crimes of humanity. She kept pressing in the code but nothing was happening, she could not understand, it worked only the day before, she had helped move supplies into the Sanctuary supply closets, but this moment in time, the code kept on being denied. Eyes were still staring.

"Is there a problem Lexa?" Guy looked at her, and he could see that she was distressed at that moment, he knew something was greatly wrong, and from the look of it. Lexa had no clue what to do at that moment in time as she pressed in numbers and letters, but still the door remained closed. "Come on lady, get the door open." She was trying her best, she thought of previous codes and then started pressing random symbols on the screen, still nothing.

"I don't know what wrong, it worked yesterd..." Before she could finish her sentence Jacques stepped up to the door, looked at the screen and typed in a six digit code. The screen flashed and an image of the room appeared with a glowing green dot on the other side of the door. Lexa looked at the screen amazed that Jacques could get into the system, also realising what the dot was. "Someone is in there!"

Darkness surrounded them as they moved quickly and quietly down the tightly fitting passageway. It seemed to go on forever, no turned for what seemed hours, knowing that only minutes had passed and time played tricks on their minds, as did the dark red glow tha seemed to be fading, thank god for the small beams of light on the ends of the carbines. It was also hot in the tunnel, and even they all felt sweat over their bodies, and it seemed almost too quiet, not a single shriek or hiss and they were not sure if that was a good sign.

Seb moved slowly, holding up Carter as they made they way to safety, feeling guilty for not putting up a fight and staying with Clegg, not wanting to accept his gloomy fate. Wondering if the monsters would get to him before he destroyed the base, hoping that they would make it away in time. "We have to go back for him." but no one seemed to be listening to him, just making sure they did not trip in the darkness and he felt Seb pushing him down the passage, urging him to hurry.

"How do we get in there?" Lexa did not answer, because she had no clue. She could still feel the eyes staring at her, options were slim as the hissing and shrieking in the background began to get louder. She did guess that whoever was in there had destroyed the door mechanism and thats why the code to open the door did not work. Closing the doors was simple, a small switch on the other side of the panel would shut the door, and there was one on each side, but it was no connected to the opening switch in any way, so there was no way to activate the door via that switch.

Guy looked at Jacques and smiled, "If we can use the compressor on the grenades to create a shockwave strong enough to jolt the door, we can get it open just enough to let us work with it, get some hands at the button, it might disable the shutting mechanism so whoever in there won't be able to close it." It seemed logical, but removing the compressor from the grenades was tricky and he got right on top of it.

Jacques knelt down and took out a grenade and started to take it apart, it was a very delicate procedure and one slight movement or knock would cause the explosive to blow. Everyone watched him hearing the sounds of the aliens get even louder. Guy could feel that Stephen had no more time, they had to get into the Sanctuary now or the boy would die very soon. Looking down as Jacques worked as carefully yet quickly as humanly possible, and as only moments passed, he looked up and smiled.

"Everyone step back." Jacques placed the compressor at the bottom of the door set a small timer for a few seconds. They all took a few steps back as the timer count down. Nothing happened and Jacques took a step forward to see what was wrong. As he knelt down the compressor exploded throwing him back into the others, also a cloud of thick dust covered the small corridor space they all were in. Sitting up from the floor Jacques looked to see if it had worked.

Shrieks echoed painfully in their ears as the first alien appeared through the hole behind them. Jacques and Lexa lifted up their guns and started to shoot as Guy began to try and lift the door that had slightly jarred open, he could hear a whimpering on the otherside. "Help us open the door, NOW!" But there was no reply. Sam quickly lifted her carbine and took over from Jacques, yelling at him to help Guy get the door open.

The hold poured out aliens, so close and so many as the wall of bullets blew into the monsters, their blood melting at the metal holding the ceiling and walls up, the hole itself grew as more aliens broke through it, only to be met by explosive rounds making only bits of black shell of their heads and bodies. Jacques and Guy worked at the door and had gotten it open, just enough to fit a small child through, and they lifted with all of their strength when they saw some human hands from the otherside appear and start to lift, and in only a few seconds the gap was large enough to fit through, just.

Stephen was pushed through first and Jacques had raised his gun to allow Sam to get to safety. Lexa kept her gun shooting, but had to move away when the sound of no more ammo clicked in her ear.

Only Jacques, Guy, Lexa were now outside the door as the aliens now a wall of them came towards them. Seconds seemed like hours as the rounds blew the monsters apart and Sams face appeared in the doors gap. "We can't shut the door from this side!" Yelling for the others to hear. Guy grabbed Jacques whose eyes were on fire as his carbine brought death the aliens.

"We gotta go!" and he pulled Jacques down to the gap, Lexa was helping them through when see looked at the aliens, no longer looking upon them as her way to heaven, an empithany of sorrowed thought at her wrong doings. Guy made it through and only Lexa remained, she knew what she had to do, as Sam appeared again to grab Lexa and pull her through, but Lexa jumped to the doors panel and looked at Sam.

"Thank you for saving me..." as she pushed the closing switch.

She turned to look upon the demons of her dreams coming towards her, hissing, screaming. Lexa closed her eyes and all went black.


	16. Chapter Fifthteen

**Chapter Fifthteen.**

Something did not seem to feel right as they made their way through the dark passageway, it all seemed to be going too smoothly. It was cramped and dark, the heat was pounding into them eventhough they could not understand where the rush of air was coming from due to the fact they were in a tunnel and light could not be seen ahead. Time was running out and they would have to get clear for the radio to contact Clegg, hoping the monsters had not got to him. They had no clue if the aliens were headed down the tunnel after then, it would be too late to get away otherwise.

It had seemed like hours had passed, but time has a funny was of messing with your perception. In real time, only minutes had passed, but from the image they had viewed on the map-com screen, this passageway should have taken them to the open by now on the farside of the base's outerwall.

Aj looked ahead trying to make out images down the thin darkness ahead of them, something was wrong, they were not walking on a flat path, they were sloping. Ever so slightly he could feel the decline as they moved forward, thinking that the map-com was incorrect and they were headed down into the Undercity, but nothing could be sure and he did not wish to worry the others, they had enough to be fearful of and the knowledge of heading down into the old city would just make their bad day just ironically worse.

"It shouldn't be too far now, a couple more minutes." Baxter tried to reassure the civilians, but knew that something was not going right, he could feel the angle of the path slope downwards, but he also knew to keep it to himself, for now anyway. Reaching to his side for the com-link he flicked the switch on his solid plastic side and prayed for a signal. They must be pretty far down, so a signal was improbable at this moment. "What are the chances!" as the radio came to life and signal bar raised to four bars out of five.

Baxter started to pass the radio down the line to Carter, he should be the one who contacts the Captain. The heat was giving him the most irritatingly throbbing headache as he moved onwards, a slight wave of claustrophobia was making the walk to safety a pain, but he knew that they would be out soon, looking at the sky and breathing fresh air, rather than the heat fumes that he was gulping down.

Seb handed the radio to Carter who thanked him. Looking at the glowing signal panels he smiled and pressed the right frequency code to get through to the Captain. With a few crackles and an odd bleep the radio kicked into action. "Captain, signal is strong, I hope the plan is working as hoped.. Over.." A few seconds passed.

"Bugs are not.. bait, self-des.. only.. minutes left.." the signal was fading and the Captains voice was breaking up. He said something about the self-destruction, what was he talking about, had he activated it and how long did they have, he heard 'minutes left'. Was that all they had, they were nowhere near any sign of daylight and the tunnel was slanting downwards towards the Undercity.

"Sir, we have not reached the evacuation point. The tunnel is aiming down into the Undercity. Can you read me?.. Over.." Hoping that the Captain had heard that. Moments passed and nothing, static, hissing, silence. "Shit!"

Moments had only passed since the door sealed shut, and nothing could be heard on the other side of the door, apart from the thudding of the domed heads of the monsters as they rammed themselves into the solid, secured door. Which looked almost like a thin wafer of steel, but still it held, and only the hissing thuds could be heard, there were no sounds of screaming, so likely Lexa was no more, screams of a host would echo from capture, yet the silent yelp of death was more than likely what had taken place, the aliens had not seemed interested in keeping humans for hosts in the recent years. Just the massacre of the human species.

Sam had no words to speak, no sounds to make, other than the deep breathing of momentary safety. She looked round to see if the others were okay, and from what she could see, Guy was already hurrying down the small passageway leading towards the medical bay, in which the stranger led them. Declan was slowly moving with them, keeping a watchful eye on the new member of their group, but one quick glance towards his love brought a smile to her weakened face.

And back his head turned and around the corner they disappeared. For a few moments Sam sat alone in the small chamber that protected them, now there was only silence, no more thudding, but screams might be expected if work to save Stephen was to be done, only hoping that the boy would survive, but she knew that both Guy and Declan would be able to help him now that they have the means of doing so. And as she looked down towards the passage that they walked down, her eyes grew heavy and she fell into her dreaming nightmares once more.

Carter quickly looked at the trail of survivors down the dark red glowing tunnel and with a relaxed calm yelled. "RUN!" and he waited for what he had said to sink in and within a matter of seconds they all began to move down the slanted tunnel, their shadows weakly dancing in the darkness. Leading them was Baxter who took Carters' yelling as a sign to get the hell away from where they had come from, and the sounds of quickening footsteps behind him made his legs move faster as he headed down the tunnel, which seemed to go on forever. Yet no-one seemed to argue, they heard, they obeyed, they ran.

Being almost pushed and carried down the tunnel by Carter, Seb almost fell to his knees, but the marine behind him kept him on his feet and moving down the tunnel. Seb not only trying to concerntrate on keeping his feet from tripping could not take his thoughts of Clegg. He had not been under his command for long, but they were friends at least, if he could call it friends, Clegg did not laugh at Seb like the others. The respect he returned to his Captain, and at that moment, he did not want to run forward to his own safety, he wanted to help his friend.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carters angered voice rang into Sebs ears, but nothing could keep him from stopping and the two of them now stood still in the red tunnel that led down to more darkness. "Come on Seb, the Cap wants us to get to safety, that meant you also, so get running..." Seb cut him of from continuing.

"He needs our help, you heard him, something was wrong up there, we can't just leave him Carter." Seb looked at the marine who knew what Seb was going to say next.

"Damnit, okay Boy, take this." Handing over his carbine to Seb, Carter frowned at what the boy was going to do, go back into the swarm and try and save the probably dead leader of the group. But he wished not to send him without a weapon, so his own gun was better than nothing, he had his side-arm at least and he knew that nothing would change Sebs mind. So he just agreed, but did not want to follow, his own gun was a greater sacrifice than his life.

Seb smiled at Carter knowing that he would be going alone, at least he was armed. So he took the heavy as hell gun and turned back up to the slanted tunnel and began to make his way back to the Security room. Not caring what lay ahead of him, he would at least try, knowing that the hissing screams of the monsters would soon be diving into his head, only hoping it was just their screaming and not their jaws.

"You don't have much time kid...!" Carters voice echoed, but Seb carried on anyway

"What would you like for me to do?" The stranger scraggly voice repeated at Guy, who at this point was already finding it rather annoying, eventhough he had only just met the man.

Jacques raising the point of his gun and aimed it at the mans head and smiled his unshaven face towards the man who had to be a Spear. "What does it look like? You are going to help with removing the bullet that is lodged inside our friend here, then you are going to seal up the wound, because the fact I am seeing right now is that this is the medical bay and as you are the only one in it and uninjured, you must be the doctor.." A short pause and another look, with Guy's grimacing look added.

"And tell us your goddamn'd name or I will shoot you." Turning his frown upside down.

Almost immediately the man raced towards a small blue draw close to the medical equipment and took out a scalpel and looked over to the boy lying now unconscious on the table. "Mandle, Doctor Richard Mandle.. And if I were you, I would put down your guns and help me." Mandle looked at the two men tall, bulky looking, yet could see that they were obviously tough, probably corp marines, hard ass, probably stupid. He would not want to mess with these big bastards, but maybe if he could get them by surprise, not yet though, soon.

Sam stood up and looked around at the room she was in, the space itself was only small, three metres by maybe five at its best. The walls were steal, black iron and sickly dirty. She always thought that the Spears would take care of their surrounding, but in the Undercity, there was not really anything to clean the dirt of with, except maybe with more cleaner looking dirt. Her eyes wandered around the room again, looking at the two sides to her left and right, on the wall midway up hung lamps, gas maybe, but they worked at least.

Her eyes moved around the walls and noticed that one of the walls seemed to have a large round hole, that would arguebly fit a man standing to pass through, but what ever it was, it was now a covered hole, with heavy impact proof metal work done on it. "I would not want to be on the other side of that blocked up hole."

Moving towards the dark passage that led her towards the medical room she thought, she glanced at the walls of the tunnel that looked almost like screens that were covered in dust, and you could not make out if they had been used. She reached out and touched the cold glass, and glared deeply into the darkness. Trying to focus her eyes she and slowly they became able to see almost into the dark screens, but she did not see her reflection, she saw open space. She felt her fingertips moving around on the wall, not knowing why she was moving them, as if her brain was telling her something.

A switch caught her fingertips attention, but her heart felt itself beating slightly faster. Sam could not help but fear what was ever on the other side of the glass that she stared through at. Thinking to herself '_Monster? Demons?_' and as she thought about it more, it became a better idea not to flick the lights on, just incase, but she never listened to her heavy beating heart and her finger pressed down.

It was not only the horror in her eyes that made her fall to the ground, it was the dart in the side of her neck than would cause her to hit the ground. Her eyes remained open, her ears could hear, but her body could not move, she was limp and the figure appeared over her, kneeling down beside her, only the leftside of his face appeared from the fading light around her, the stranger who was helping Stephen. "Like what you saw Missy?" Followed with an evil crackly laugh. "Oh and your companions did not like the nerve gas I let into the chamber, but they did manage a shot off." Turning his head to her fading view, white liquid dripped from the grusome crevous that was once a face, and chunks of organic plastic and cybernetic brain fell from his semi formed skull.

His heart thudded hard against his chest, the passageway came to an abrupt end.

Everyone behind him had also stopped and mumbled fearful moaning that would drive a man insane and Aj was close to losing it. Baxter just burst out laughing and Serena cried a downpour of tears. Only Carter was holding it all together has he looked at the space that seemed to fit them all in. He ignored the cries and moans, keeping the laughter out he kept his focus on the wall in front of him, staring.

Knowing that they would not be able to use an impact grenade or any other explosive, their options were thin, more like invisible from any plausible situation that would call for a group of people running from aliens to get trapped at the end of the tunnel that lead to hell. Keeping his mind on the problem he knew what options there were and going back up the tunnel was not one of them, they had to get through, but time was against them, the self-destruct would soon be going off and then it would not be monsters ripping them apart, it would be the pure rage of the fire of the explosion.

"Listen everyone.." trying to sound calm and relaxed, he looked over the small crowd. "Behind this wall is the Undercity, and most probably it will be swarming with Xeno activity, but our problem is getting past this wall, especially given the fact we have no explosives with area barriers on, so we are kinda at a deadend. But that is being negative, I promise that in only minutes, we will be over this small hurdle." Baxter had stopped laughing as he caught a slight sound coming from the other side of the wall, he moved his head closer.

Carter looked at the now calmer Daniel Baxter and moved towards the wall were he could hear sounds, voices. And he heard something, very clearly, and he jumped away from the wall, as did Baxter who was yelling at everyone.

"Down!..."


End file.
